Critically ill patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) commonly develop severe muscle wasting and weakness and consequently impaired muscle function. This not only delays respirator weaning and ICU discharge, but has deleterious effects on morbidity, mortality, financial costs, and quality of life of survivors. Acute Quadriplegic Myopathy (AQM) is one of the most common neuromuscular disorders underlying ICU muscle wasting and paralysis, and is a consequence of modern intensive care interventions, although the exact causes remain unclear. Muscle gene/protein expression, intracellular signalling, post-translational modifications, muscle membrane excitability, and contractile properties at the single muscle fibre level were explored in order to unravel the mechanisms underlying the muscle wasting and weakness associated with AQM and how this can be counteracted by specific intervention strategies. A unique experimental rat ICU model was used to address the mechanistic and therapeutic aspects of this condition, allowing time-resolved studies for a period of two weeks. Subsequently, the findings obtained from this model were translated into a clinical study. The obtained results showed that the mechanical silencing of skeletal muscle, i.e., absence of external strain (weight bearing) and internal strain (myosin-actin activation) due to the pharmacological paralysis or sedation associated with the ICU intervention, is likely to be the primary mechanism triggering the preferential myosin loss and muscle wasting, features specifically characteristic of AQM. Moreover, mechanical silencing induces a specific gene expression pattern as well as post-translational modifications in the motor domain of myosin that may be critical for both function and for triggering proteolysis. The higher nNOS expression found in the ICU patients and its cytoplasmic dislocation are indicated as a probable mechanism underlying these highly specific modifications. This work also demonstrated that passive mechanical loading is able to attenuate the oxidative stress associated with the mechanical silencing and induces positive effects on muscle function, i.e., alleviates the loss of force-generating capacity that underlie the ICU intervention, supporting the importance of early physical therapy in immobilized, sedated, and mechanically ventilated ICU patients.

Cardiovascular disease is a large problem in the intensive care unit (ICU) due to its high prevalence in modern society. In the ICU, intensive monitoring is required to help diagnose cardiac and circulatory dysfunction. However, complex interactions between the patient, disease, and treatment can hide the underlying disorder. As a result, clinical staff must often rely on their skill, intuition, and experience to choose therapy, increasing variability in care and patient outcome. To simplify this clinical scenario, model-based methods have been created to track subject-specific disease and treatment dependent changes in patient condition, using only clinically available measurements. The approach has been tested in two pig studies on acute pulmonary embolism and septic shock and in a human study on surgical recovery from mitral valve replacement. The model-based method was able to track known pathophysiological changes in the subjects and identified key determinants of cardiovascular health such as cardiac preload, afterload, and contractility. These metrics, which can be otherwise difficult to determine clinically, can be used to help provide targets for goal-directed therapies to help provide deliver the optimal level of therapy to the patient. Hence, this model-based approach provides a feasible and potentially practical means of improving patient care in the ICU.

Critically ill patients often exhibit abnormal glycaemia that can lead to severe complications and potentially death. In critically ill adults, hyperglycaemia is a common problem that has been associated with increased morbidity and mortality. In contrast, critically ill infants often suffer from hypoglycaemia, which may cause seizures and permanent brain injury. Further complicating the matter, both of these conditions are diagnosed by blood glucose (BG) measurements, often taken several hours apart, and, as a result, these conditions can remain poorly managed or go completely undetected. Emerging ‘continuous’ glucose monitoring (CGM) devices with 1-5 minute measurement intervals have the potential to resolve many issues associated with conventional intermittent BG monitoring. The objective of this research was to investigate and develop methods and models to optimise the clinical use of CGM devices in critically ill patients. For critically ill adults, an in-silico study was conducted to quantify the potential benefits of introducing CGM devices into the intensive care unit (ICU). Mathematical models of CGM error characteristics were implemented with existing, clinically validated, models of the insulin-glucose regulatory system, to simulate the behaviour of CGM devices in critically ill patients. An alarm algorithm was also incorporated to provide a warning at the onset of predicted hypoglycaemia, allowing a virtual dextrose intervention to be administered as a preventative measure. The results of the in-silico study showed a potential reduction in nurse workload of approximately 75% and a significant reduction in hypoglycaemia, while also providing insight into the optimal rescue dose size and resulting dynamics of glucose recovery. During 2012, ten patients were recruited into a pilot clinical trial of CGM devices in critical care with a primary goal of assessing the reliability of CGM devices in this environment, with a specific interest in the effects of CGM device type and sensor site on sensor glucose (SG) data. Results showed the mean absolute relative difference of SG data across the cohort was between 12-24% and CGM devices were capable of monitoring some patients with a high degree of accuracy. However, certain illnesses, drugs and therapies can potentially affect sensor performance, and one particular set of results suggested severe oedema may have affected sensor performance. A novel and first of its kind metric, the Trend Compass was developed and used to assesses trend accuracy of SG in a mathematically precise fashion without approximation, and, importantly, does so independent of glucose level or sensor bias, unlike any other such metrics. In this analysis, the trend accuracy between CGM devices was typically good. A recent hypothesis suggesting that glucose complexity is associated with mortality was also investigated using the clinical CGM data. The results showed that complexity results from detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) were influenced far more by CGM device type than patient outcome. In addition, the location of CGM sensors had no significant effect on complexity results in this data set. Thus, while this emerging analytical method has shown positive results in the literature, this analysis indicates that those results may be misleading given the impact of technology outweighing that of physiology. This particular result helps to further delineate the range of potential applications and insight that CGM devices might offer in this clinical scenario. In critically ill infants, CGM devices were used to investigate hypoglycaemia during the first 48 hours after birth. More than 50 CGM data sets were obtained from several studies of CGM in infants at risk of hypoglycaemia at the Waikato hospital neonatal ICU (NICU). In light of concerns regarding CGM accuracy, particularly during the first few hours of monitoring and/or at low BG levels, an alternative, novel calibration scheme was developed to increase the reliability of SG data. The recalibration algorithm maximised the value of very accurate calibration BG measurements from a blood gas analyser (BGA), by forcing SG data to pass through these calibration BG measurements. Recalibration increased all metrics of hypoglycaemia (number, duration, severity and hypoglycaemic index) as the factory CGM calibration was found to be reporting higher values at low BG levels due to its least squares calibration approach based on the assumption of a less accurate calibration glucose meter. Thus, this research defined new calibration methods to directly optimise the use of CGM devices in this clinical environment, where accurate reference BG measurements are available. Furthermore, this work showed that metrics such as duration or area under curve were far more robust to error than the typically used counted-incidence metrics, indicating how clinical assessment may have to change when using these devices. The impact of errors in calibration measurements on metrics used to classify hypoglycaemia was also assessed. Across the cohort, measurement error, particularly measurement bias, had a larger effect on hypoglycaemia metrics than delays in entering calibration measurements. However, for patients with highly variable glycaemia, timing error can have a significantly larger impact on output SG data than measurement error. Unusual episodes of hypoglycaemia could be successfully identified using a stochastic model, based on kernel density estimation, providing another level of information to aid decision making when assessing hypoglycaemia. Using the developed algorithms/tools, with CGM data from 161 infants, the incidence of hypoglycaemia was assessed and compared to results determined using BG measurements alone. Results from BG measurements showed that ~17% of BG measurements identified hypoglycaemia and over 80% of episodes occurred in the first day after birth. However, with concurrent BG and SG data available, the SG data consistently identified hypoglycaemia at a higher rate suggesting the BG measurements were not capturing some episodes. Duration of hypoglycaemia in SG data varied from 0-10+%, but was typically in the range 4-6%. Hypoglycaemia occurred most frequently on the first day after birth and an optimal measurement protocol for at risk infants would likely involve CGM for the first week after birth with frequent intermittent BG measurements for the first day. Overall, CGM devices have the potential to increase the understanding of certain glycaemic abnormalities and aid in the diagnosis/treatment of other conditions in critically ill patients. This research has used a range of prospective and retrospective clinical studies to develop methods to further optimise the use of CGM devices within the critically ill clinical environment, as well as delineating where they are less useful or less robust. These latter results clearly define areas where clinical practice needs to adapt when using these devices, as well as areas where device makers could target technological improvements for best effect. Although further investigations are required before these devices are regularly implemented in day-to-day clinical practice, as an observational tool they are capable of providing useful information that is not currently available with conventional intermittent BG monitoring.

Background: Getting admitted to CCU is viewed as a stressful event by patients. However, numerous studies have indicated that nurses do not always accurately perceive the stressors of their clients. Therefore, it is important for nurses to know what seems most stressful from the patients‘ perspective so that appropriate nursing measures can be directed towards minimizing such stressors. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore the perception of CCU stressors experienced by patients from both patients and nurses perspective and to compare between them, identify the effect of socio-demographic characteristics of participant's on the level of stress perception and to what extent clinical guidelines fulfil CCU needs. Methodology: A mixed method approach (qualitative and quantitative) was applied. Purposive random sampling was used to recruit data. Ethical approval was obtained prior to data collection. Data was collected from three CCUs within the West and Northwest NHS Trusts. Participants who met the inclusion criteria were interviewed and asked to rank the Environmental Stressor Questionnaire (ESQ). Qualitative data was analyzed using Gorgi's method of analysis. A quantitative data was analyzed using the SPSS software version 15. Results: There was some consistency in the data where patients and nurses provided same ranking for CCU stressors. Consistently nurses ranked physiological stressors higher than psychological stressors. Patients showed consistency in the findings between what they ranked in the ESQ and their narratives more than their counterparts. Perception of stress was affected by participant's socio-demographic characteristics. A key finding is that the current guidelines do not serve patients and nurses needs. Conclusions: Nurses should be well equipped with knowledge and experience to overcome stressful situations. Educational programs should be made available for nurses to improve stress management. Nurses should assess patient's needs by applying effectively communication skills.

Uppmärksamhet och stöd till intensivvårdspatienters anhöriga kan ibland bli begränsad då sjuksköterskan ofta fokuserar på patientens behov och glömmer bort de anhöriga. Eftersom möten med anhöriga sker frekvent inom sjuksköterskeyrket är det därför viktigt att sjuksköterskan har insikt och förståelse för vad anhöriga upplever som stödjande. På en intensivvårdsavdelning är tillståndet hos patienten ofta kritiskt och de anhöriga behöver stöd för att hantera, förstå och anpassa sig till situationen. Syftet med den strukturerade litteraturstudien är att belysa anhörigas upplevelser av sjuksköterskans stöd inom intensivvård. Sammanlagt har 10 vetenskapliga artiklar såväl med kvalitativ och kvantitativ ansats analyserats tematiskt och analysen gav fyra kategorier, Tillit och förtroende, Närvaro och delaktighet, Tröst och empati samt Tillgänglighet och kontinuitet. Sammanfattningsvis finns det ett stort behov av att få stöd som anhörig. De anhöriga är i allmänhet nöjda med stödet de får av sjuksköterskan inom intensivvården men det behövs ytterligare forskning om vad för stöd som behövs samt hur stödet upplevs av de anhöriga. / The attention and support given to family members at the Intensive Care Unit can sometimes be limited due to that the nurses often focus on the patient's needs and forget about family members needs. Since nurses meet family members on a daily basis it is important for them to know what family members find supportive. The condition of patients at the intensive care unit is often critical and family members need support to cope, understand and adapt to the situation. The aim of the study was to highlight family members´ experiences of support from nurses at the intensive care unit. A structured literature review was conducted in which 10 articles with both qualitative and quantitative design underwent thematic analysis. The analysis gave four categories: Trust and reliance, Presence and participation, Comfort and empathy and Availability and continuity. To sum up; family members at the Intensive Care Unit have a great need of support. Family members are in general satisfied with the support, but there is need for more research in what kind of support they require and how family members experience the support.

Bakgrund:Att vara anhöriga till en person med psykisk sjukdom medför ofta en egen försämrad psykisk hälsa samt kan vara både tidskrävande och kostsamt. Känslor av skuld och skam samt stigmatisering från omvärlden är vanligt förekommande. Anhöriga önskar delaktighet i vården men exkluderas ofta. Det finns nationella riktlinjer och lagar som betonar vikten av anhörigas delaktighet, trots detta upplevs anhöriga ofta påträngande. De finns lite kunskap om anhörigas kontakt med psykiatriska intensivvårdsavdelningar. Syfte:Syftet med denna studie var att beskriva sjuksköterskors erfarenheter av möten med anhöriga på psykiatriska intensivvårdsavdelningar Metod:Studien har en kvalitativ design med induktiv ansats. Sju sjuksköterskor på psykiatriska intensivvårdsavdelningar i Sverige intervjuades enligt semistrukturerade metod. Materialet analyserades med kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultat:Resultatet från intervjuerna utmynnade i fyra kategorier: Organisatoriska förutsättningar för att möta anhöriga, Olika syn på anhöriga, Utmaningar i mötet med anhöriga samt Att möta och kommunicera med anhöriga. Diskussion:Resultatet i studien diskuteras i relation till tidigare forskning och Andersheds teori om Delaktighet i Ljuset – Delaktighet i mörkret. I resultatet framkom aspekter som kan tänkas leda till både delaktighet i ljuset och i mörkret. / Background: Being a relative to someone with mental disorder often causes a decreased mental health and can be both time-consuming and costly. Feelings of guilt and shame and stigmatization from the surroundings are common. Relatives’ wishes to participate in care but often get excluded. National guidelines and laws emphasize the importance of relatives’ participation; despite this relatives' often get perceived as intrusive. Little is known about relatives contact with psychiatric intensive care units. Aim: The aim of this study was to describe nurses’ experiences from meeting relatives at psychiatric intensive care units. Method: This study has a qualitative design with an inductive approach. Seven nurses at psychiatric intensive care units in Sweden were interviewed with semistructured method. The material was analyzed using a qualitative content analysis. Results: The result from the interviews developed into four categories: Organizational requirements to meet relatives, Different views on relatives, Challenges in the meeting with relatives, and To meet and communicate with relatives. Discussions: The result is being discussed in relation to previous research and Andershed's theory of Involvement in the light – Involvement in the dark. In the result aspects emerged that can lead to both participation in the light and in the darkness.

Class of 2012 Abstract / Specific Aims: The purpose of this study is to evaluate and compare clinical outcomes and cost involved with use of poractant versus beractant for the treatment of respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) in a level III, neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) within an academic medical center. Methods: This retrospective cohort study included patients if they were admitted to the NICU for RDS between April 1, 2010 to November 30, 2010 and December 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011 treated with beractant and poractant respectively. Patients were excluded from the study if they were greater than 35 weeks gestational age and survived less than 48 hours. This is a review and the information needed from the patients was submitted in a data extraction form. Data collected included demographic variables (age, birthweight, birth length, gender, and race/ ethnicity), FiO2 measurement, mechanical ventilation time, length of hospitalization in the NICU, the incidence complications in the first 28 days, number of doses given, use of the nasal CPAP, concurrent complications or comorbidites such as pulmonary hemorrhage, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, patent ductus arteriosis, intraventricular hemorrhage, and retinopathy of maturity. Main Results: Data from 27 neonates in beractant and 13 in poractant groups were collected. The FiO2 measurements in both groups were generally similar. However, FiO2 was consistently lower in the poractant group. (p = 0.044 from a runs statistical test) Conclusions: The FiO2 measurement is poractant group was lower compared with beractant group, however the difference was noted to be not statistically significant.

Introduktion: Patientens upplevelser från intensivvårdsavdelningen kan ge upphov till stress som orsakas av flera faktorer. Detta kan påverka patienten lång tid efter utskrivningen. Det är därför viktigt att veta vilka omvårdnadsåtgärder på intensivvårdsavdelningen som stödjer patientens återhämtning. Syfte: Studiens syfte var att beskriva intensivvårdssjuksköterskors uppfattningar av preventiva omvårdnadsåtgärder på intensivvårdsavdelningen som kan vara stödjande för patientens återhämtning. Metod: En kvalitativ metod valdes och datainsamling skedde i form av nio intervjuer med intensivvårdssjuksköterskor, med erfarenhet av uppföljningsarbete, på tre olika sjukhus. Analys av insamlat material, skedde med hjälp av kvalitativ innehållsanalys enligt Graneheim och Lundman. Huvudresultat: I resultatet framkom fyra huvudkategorier som beskriver områden för preventiva omvårdnadsåtgärder: Skapa meningsfullhet, Förklara omvärlden, Skapa trygghet och Förbered framtiden. Konklusion: Studiens resultat visar att kunskap om patientens historia kan användas som grund för att knyta an till patientens vardagsliv. Struktur, förklaringar och råd från personalen har uppfattats stödja patientens omvärldsuppfattning på IVA. Trygghet och närhet från personal och anhöriga anses viktigt för patienten. Framförallt har stöd till patientens inre resurser och anpassande av miljön genom nedtrappad övervakning, uppfattats kunna bidra till att patienten återfår sin självständighet och bättre kan hantera framtiden. / Introduction: A patient´s experiences during intensive care can lead to stress that is caused by several factors. This can affect the patient long after discharge. Therefore, it is essential to know which nursing interventions in the intensive care unit, that best support the patient's recovery. Aim: The aim of this study was to describe the intensive care nurses' perceptions of preventive care measures in the intensive care that can be supporting for the patient's recovery. Method: A qualitative method was chosen and the data collection was done by interviewing nine intensive care nurses with experience in monitoring work at three different hospitals. The collected material was analyzed in accordance with Graneheim and Lundman´s qualitative content analysis. Main Results: The results revealed four main categories in which preventive care measures are especially useful: Creating meaning, Explaining the environment, Creating safety and Preparing for the Future. Conclusion: By gaining knowledge about what is relevant to each particular patient it is possible to adapt care measures based on this. It seems that structure, detailed explanations and advice provided by the staff will help the patient to better assess his/her situation. Being close to staff and family is comforting for the patient. It is a great importance to help the patient regain independence in order to manage the future. It was perceived that this can be done by gradually decreasing the use of technology and supporting the patient´s inner strengths.

Bakgrund: På intensivvårdsavdelningen är patienterna ofta så sjuka att kommunikationen med vårdpersonalen kan vara svår. Närstående på intensivvårdsavdelningen har en viktig roll i omvårdnaden. I studierna framkommer att närstående har ett stort behov av information samt att kommunikation, skydd av patient, deltagande och stöd är viktigt men ingen av studierna har utgått från mötet med vårdpersonalen. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att beskriva upplevelser av närståendes möten med vårdpersonal på intensivvårdsavdelningen. Metod: Deskriptiv design med kvalitativ ansats och semistrukturerade intervjuer med nio närstående. Kvalitativ innehållsanalys med induktiv ansats. Huvudresultat: Det framkom fyra kategorier: Att känna trygghet som handlade om att få ett förtroende för vårdpersonalen, att vårdpersonalen visade omtanke, var tillmötesgående och professionella. Att känna otrygghet som handlade om att de upplevde otillräckligt förtroende för vårdpersonalen, att de kände ovisshet i mötet med dem och var oprofessionella. Att ha behov av information som syftar till att närstående önskade få information som var tydlig, förståelig, kontinuerlig, aktuell och ärlig. Att uppleva brist på information framkom då det förekom osäkerhet i informationen och en ovilja hos vårdpersonalen att ge information. Slutsatser: Vårdpersonalen bör få en ökad insikt om hur närståendes behov ska tillgodoses och att de får en ökad medvetenhet om att det framkommer både osäkerhet och brist på information. Det är viktigt att de gör något åt det för att öka tryggheten för de närstående. / Background: In the intensive care unit, patients are often so ill that communication with nursing staff can be difficult. Relatives in the intensive care unit have an important role in nursing care. The studies show that relatives have a large need for information and that communication, patient protection, participation and support are important, but none of the studies have been based on the meeting with nursing staff. Aim: The purpose of the study was to describe experiences of relatives' meetings with nursing staff at the intensive care unit. Method: A descriptive design with qualitative approaches and semi-structured interviews with nine relatives were conducted. Qualitative content analysis with inductive approaches was used. Main results: Four categories emerged: To feel secure was about gaining confidence in the nursing staff, that the nursing staff showed care, were courteous and professional. To feel insecure was about experiencing insufficient confidence in the nursing staff, feeling uncertainty when meeting and being unprofessional. Needing information aims to that relatives wished for information that was clear, understandable, continuous, current and honest. To experience lack of information emerged as uncertainty in the information and an unwillingness of the nursing staff to provide information existed. Conclusion: Nursing staff should gain insight into how to meet relatives' needs and to gain increased awareness that both uncertainty and lack of information exists. It is important that they do something about it to increase the safety of the relatives.

BACKGROUND: Agitation is a common complication in the intensive care unit (ICU) manifested in behavior and actions that range from simple apprehension or anxiety to frankly combative behavior.5 Agitation is associated with significant adverse outcomes.1-3 Studies report up to 71% of ICU patients have some degree of agitation during their ICU stay and that agitation is observed 32% of the time.3;4 Potential causes of agitation in critically ill patients are numerous; however, data about factors that predict agitation are limited. OBJECTIVE: The specific aim of this study was to identify predictors of agitation on admission to the ICU as well as within 24 hours prior to the first agitation event. DESIGN: Retrospective medical record review. SETTING: Two adult critical care units, Medical Respiratory ICU (MRICU) and Surgical Trauma ICU (STICU) in an urban university medical center. SUBJECTS: A convenience sample of 200 critically ill adult patients, all older than 18 years of age, consecutively admitted to a MRICU and STICU, admitted for longer than 24 hours, over a two month period. METHODS: Risk factors for agitation were identified from literature review as well as from expert consultation. Data were collected during the first 5 days of ICU stay. Agitation was identified using the documented Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale or notation of “agitation” in the medical record. RESULTS: Of the sample 56.5% were male, 51.5% Euro-American, with mean age 55.5 years (±16.4). Independent predictors of agitation on admission to the ICU were: past medical history of illicit substance use, height, both the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment respiratory and central nervous system subscores, and use of restraints. Predictors of agitation within 24 hours prior to the first agitation event were: percent of hours using restraints, percent of hours using mechanical ventilation, number of genitourinary catheters, and blood pH and albumin. CONCLUSIONS: Use of these empirically based data may allow care providers to identify those at risk as well as predict agitation. Elimination or reduction of agitation in the ICU would improve patient safety and reduce hospitalization resulting in significant savings to healthcare. Reference List (1) Woods JC, Mion LC, Connor JT et al. Severe agitation among ventilated medical intensive care unit patients: frequency, characteristics and outcomes. Intensive Care Med 2004;30:1066-1072. (2) Jaber S, Chanques G, Altairac C et al. A prospective study of agitation in a medical-surgical ICU: incidence, risk factors, and outcomes. Chest 2005;128:2749-2757. (3) Fraser GL, Prato BS, Riker RR, Berthiaume D, Wilkins ML. Frequency, severity, and treatment of agitation in young versus elderly patients in the ICU. Pharmacotherapy 2000;20:75-82. (4) Gardner K, Sessler CN, Grap MJ. Clinical factors associated with agitation. Am J Crit Care 2006;15:330-331. (5) Riker RR, Picard JT, Fraser GL. Prospective evaluation of the Sedation-Agitation Scale for adult critically ill patients. Crit Care Med 1999;27:1325-1329.