Beneficial effects of leukocyte depletion of transfused blood on postoperative complications in patients undergoing cardiac surgery: a randomized clinical trial.

BACKGROUND: Leukocytes in transfused blood are associated with several posttransfusion immunomodulatory effects. Although leukocytes play an important role in reperfusion injury, the contribution of leukocytes in transfused blood products has not been investigated. To estimate the role and the timing of leukocyte filtration of red cells in cardiac surgery, we performed a randomized study. METHODS AND RESULTS: Patients scheduled for cardiac surgery were randomly allocated to receive either packed cells without buffy coat (PC, n = 306), fresh-filtered units (FF, n = 305), or stored-filtered units (SF, n = 303) when transfusion was indicated. We evaluated the periods of hospitalization and stay at the intensive care unit, and the occurrences of postoperative complications up to 60 days after surgery. The average hospital stay was 10.7 days, of which 3.2 days were in the intensive care unit, without significant differences between the groups. In the PC trial arm, 23.0% of the patients had infections versus 16.9% and 17.9% of the patients in the leukocyte-depleted trial arms (P=.13). Within 60 days, 45 patients had died, 24 patients in the PC trial arm (7.8%), versus 11 (3.6%) and 10 (3.3%) patients in the FF and SF trial arms, respectively (P=.015). CONCLUSIONS: In cardiac surgery patients, especially when more than three blood transfusions are required, leukocyte depletion by filtration results in a significant reduction of the postoperative mortality that can only partially be explained by the higher incidence of postoperative infections in the PC group.

Postcardiac surgery low cardiac output syndrome: dopexamine or dopamine?

OBJECTIVE: To compare the efficacy and safety of dopexamine with dopamine in the treatment of low cardiac output syndrome after cardiac surgery. DESIGN: This was a multicentre, double-blind, randomised, parallel-group study conducted in intensive care units at centres in Holland and Belgium. Patients were randomised to receive dopexamine (up to 2.0 micrograms/ kg per min) or dopamine (up to 6.0 micrograms/kg per min) for 6 h after low cardiac output syndrome was confirmed. RESULTS: 70 patients were enrolled (35/group) and there was no significant differences in the operative procedures or haemodynamics at entry into the study. Clinical efficacy, defined as a cardiac index > 2.5 l/min per m2 with urine production > 0.5 ml/kg per h and stable haemodynamics for two consecutive readings 1 h apart, was achieved by 90 and 87% of patients in the dopexamine and dopamine groups, respectively. However, more patients maintained clinical efficacy over the 6-h period in the dopexamine group, which was statistically significant at 1-2 h and approached significance at all other time points. Safety was assessed by comparing the adverse events and concomitant medication. Fewer patients on dopexamine had cardiac events compared with dopamine-treated patients (25 vs 38 events), although there was no difference in the pattern of rhythm disturbance. Fewer patients in the dopexamine group required concomitant vasodilating drugs (18 vs 30). CONCLUSION: Taking the proportion of patients achieving clinical efficacy, the time to achieve it and the maintenance of it along with the adverse event profile, dopexamine was shown to be an effective and safe drug to use in the management of low cardiac output syndrome after coronary artery bypass graft surgery and may be superior to dopamine.

Hypokalaemia in hypertensive patients treated with diuretics: no increase in cardiac arrhythmias.

Hypokalaemia is a risk factor for the development of cardiac arrhythmias, at least in patients with a cardiac disease, but it is not known whether this applies to subjects with normal hearts. In the present study, 8 young patients with essential hypertension were treated with chlorthalidone for 12 wk followed by a combination of chlorthalidone (50 mg/day) and triamterene (100 mg/day) for 6 wk. This protocol was chosen in order to create different phases in the intra- and extracellular potassium concentrations. At the end of each 6-wk period, blood analyses were performed together with whole body counting for 40K, 24-h electrocardiogram registration, and ergometry. Although plasma potassium concentration and total body potassium decreased significantly in the chlorthalidone period and increased significantly in the period when triamterene was administered together with chlorthalidone, no changes in ectopic activity were seen during either 24-h registration or ergometry. It is concluded that, although hypokalaemia may be dangerous in patients with diseased hearts, a similar risk could not be established in subjects with a normal heart and uncomplicated essential hypertension. Whether the conclusion applies to the average patient with essential hypertension is still a subject of study.

Teaching toothbrushing behavior in severely retarded adults: systematic reduction of feedback and duration training.

Eight severely retarded adults were trained to brush their teeth. Component behaviours were trained in a predetermined sequence of 15 steps. Training included scheduled opportunities for independence performance, instruction, modelling and partial and total physical guidance. Four types of feedback were used, i.e., verbal praise plus explicit head nodding, explicit nodding, inconspicous nodding and no feedback. Stepwise reduction of feedback was made contingent on a subject's repeated performance of each individual step. Five of the eight subjects learned to perform all 15 steps for three consecutive sessions. A different procedure for fading out feedback was used for the other three subjects, two of which learned to perform 14 steps reliably. Acquisition training was followed by procedures to establish persistance of criterion performances for an interval of eight days. Training procedures were based on interval shaping. All seven subjects learned to demonstrate the 14 or 15 component behaviours after an interval of eight to 17 days in which no systematic training occured.