CCC Critical Care compendium 340
Nocardia

OVERVIEW gram positive bacilli that form weakly acid-fast beaded branching filaments found worldwide in soil and some form part of healthy oral flora usually transmitted by inhalation or traumatic inoculation disease of the immunocompromised – esp T-cell mediated immunity (AIDS,…

CCC Critical Care compendium 340
Hyperthermia

OVERVIEW Definitions Hyperthermia is when core temperature exceeds that normally maintained by homeostatic mechanisms Fever  or pyrexia is an elevation of body temperature above the normal range of 36.5–37.5 °C (97.7–99.5 °F) due to an increase in the temperature regulatory set point Uncontrolled hyperthermia differs…

CCC Critical Care compendium 340
Hyperphosphataemia

Hyperphosphataemia: renal failure; increased renal resorption (hypoparathyroidism, thyrotoxicosis); cellular injury with release (tumour lysis syndrome, rhabdomyolysis, haemolysis, ischemic gut)

CCC Critical Care compendium 340
Shunts and Echocardiography

OVERVIEW can use bubble testing to ID calculate gradients if L->R shunt reverses due to pulmonary hypertension it is Eisenmenger syndrome Echo may not detect extra-cardiac shunts ASD patent foramen ovale (30% incidence in general population) ostium secundum ostium primum…

Toxicology-Conundrum-340 256
Brain Dead?

A baffling case of apparent brain death... Can you work out what has happened? A 35-year old female with a history of multiple sclerosis and depression is found collapsed at home. She is known to have access to quetiapine.