Tuyển tập các báo cáo nghiên cứu về y học được đăng trên tạp chí y học Critical Care cung cấp cho các bạn kiến thức về ngành y đề tài: Attending to the lightness of numbers: toward the understanding of critical care epidemiology. | Critical Care December 2004 Vol 8 No 6 Okamoto and Rubenfeld Commentary Attending to the lightness of numbers toward the understanding of critical care epidemiology Valdelis N Okamoto1 and Gordon D Rubenfeld2 1 Respiratory Intensive Care Unit Pulmonary Division University of São Paulo São Paulo Brazil 2Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine University of Washington Seattle WA USA Corresponding author Valdelis N Okamoto vnokamoto@ Published online 18 October 2004 This article is online at http content 8 6 422 2004 BioMed Central Ltd Related to Research by Laupland see page 513 Critical Care 2004 8 422-424 DOI cc2952 Abstract Most of the epidemiological studies in critical care do not express their results in terms of population burden of critical illness. This happens because the population at risk of critical illness is particularly difficult to estimate once intensive care units ICUs receive patients from many sources. The study by Laupland in this issue of Critical Care provides a good estimate of the incidence of admission to ICUs in the Calgary Health Region. He considered the Calgary Health Region population as the denominator and explored the effects of a changing numerator according to the residency status resident in Calgary or not on the estimation of the burden of admission to the ICU. He demonstrated that if the residency status were not known the incidence of admission to the ICU would have been overestimated by more than 50 . Furthermore non-residents had a lower mortality despite higher Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation APACHE II and Therapeutic Intervention Scoring System TISS scores. There is tremendous variability in decisions to admit a patient to the ICU and the epidemiology of critical care is influenced by them in a subtle but inextricable way. An understanding of the population epidemiology of critical illness and the use of the ICU the variations in these parameters and factors that .
