Tuyển tập các báo cáo nghiên cứu về y học được đăng trên tạp chí y học Critical Care giúp cho các bạn có thêm kiến thức về ngành y học đề tài: Measurements in the intensive care unit: what do they mean? | Available online http content 7 6 415 Commentary Measurements in the intensive care unit what do they mean John C Marshall Department of Surgery and the Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care Medicine University of Toronto and the Toronto General Hospital University Health Network Toronto Canada Correspondence John C Marshall Published online 11 November 2003 Critical Care 2003 7 415-416 DOI cc2400 This article is online at http content 7 6 415 2003 BioMed Central Ltd Print ISSN 1364-8535 Online ISSN 1466-609X Abstract Intensivists depend upon a large number of measurements to make daily decisions in the ICU. However the reliability of these measures may be jeopardized by the effects of therapy. Moreover in critical illness what is normal is not necessarily optimal. Procalcitonin a putative marker of occult infection is emerging as a valuable diagnostic marker in the ICU. Although questions remain regarding its specificity an increasing body of work suggests that it is reliably elevated in the setting of infection. As demonstrated by Level and colleagues in this issue of Critical Care its utility as a diagnostic marker is not affected by concomitant hemodialysis. Keywords continuous venovenous hemodialysis critical illness intensive care unit measure procalcitonin Measurement is the currency of critical care. Illness in the intensive care unit is defined not by pathologic changes in a particular tissue or by structural changes in a specific organ but by a constellation of quantifiable changes in physiological and biochemical measures. To round in an intensive care unit is to be exposed to a cacophony of numbers - the pH the Glasgow Coma Scale the fibrinogen level. To be an intensivist means to take this chaotic melange of digits and to transform them into a clinical profile that will support a therapeutic decision. An uninitiated visitor to a contemporary intensive care unit could be forgiven for .
