Early postoperative delirium after cardiac surgery was characterized by increased stress levels and inflammatory reaction. BIS index measurements showed lower cortical activity in delirious patients with a low sensitivity (27%) and high specificity (96%).

Measuring MTDSA by ultrasound facilitates selection of the appropriate ETT in pediatric patients and may reduce the number of reintubations.

In sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD), a number of metabolic alterations to the brain have been observed soon after the onset of the initial clinical symptoms. In particular, impairments of glucose utilization and related metabolic pathways are prominent and well-established findings in incipient AD, resembling metabolic abnormalities such as have been found in noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. To mimic these abnormalities, we administered an intracerebroventricular (icv) injection of streptozotocin (STZ) to rats and studied the effects of glucose and glycogen metabolism in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus compared with controls. The enzymatic activities studied dropped significantly by 10-30% in brain cortex (cort.) and hippocampus (hc) 3 and 6 weeks after icv STZ injection: hexokinase (15% 3 weeks cort.; 14% 6 weeks cort.; 12% 3 weeks hc; 28% 6 weeks hc), phosphofructokinase (15%; 15%; 24%; 15%), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (10%; 12%; 30%; 19%), pyruvate kinase (22%; 13%; 22%; 28%), glucose-6-phosphatase (10%; 23%; 14%; 19%) and phosphorylase a (22%; 11%; 30%; 15%). The content of glycogen was significantly higher in STZ-treated rats than in control animals (7% 3 weeks and 15% 6 weeks in cortex). In contrast to the reduced enzymatic activities, we observed no changes in the concentrations of the glycolytic intermediates glucose, glucose-6-phosphate, fructose-6-phosphate, fructose-1,6-diphosphate, pyruvate, lactate and glucose-1-phosphate. These data clearly indicate reduced glycolytic enzyme activity after icv administration of STZ and suggest gluconeogenesis consequent on abnormalities in glucose breakdown. This model may thus be assumed to be a useful tool to investigate pathogenetic factors involved in sporadic dementia of Alzheimer type.

It is concluded from the present investigation that the two scoring methods represent good diagnostic tools with high agreement rates in critical ill ICU patients.

Background: Delirium increases morbidity, mortality and healthcare costs especially in the elderly. Serum anticholinergic activity (SAA) is a suggested biomarker for anticholinergic burden and delirium risk, but the association with cerebral cholinergic function remains unclear. To clarify this relationship, we prospectively assessed the correlation of SAA with quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) power, delirium occurrence, functional and cognitive measures in a cross-sectional sample of acutely hospitalized elderly (> 80 y) with high dementia and delirium prevalence.