BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Failure or delay to diagnose brain death leads to needless occupation of a hospital bed, emotional and fi nancial losses, and unavailability of organs for transplants. The intensive care physician plays an essential role in this diagnosis. This study intended to evaluate intensivists' knowledge concerning brain death. METHODS: Cross-sectional study in 15 intensive care units (ICU) in eight hospitals in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil. RESULTS: Two hundred forty-six intensivists were interviewed in a consecutive sample between April and December 2005. The prevalence of lack of knowledge regarding the concept was of 17%. Twenty per cent of the interviewees ignored the legal need for complementary confi rmatory tests for their diagnosis. Forty-seven per cent considered themselves Evaluation of Intensivists' Knowledge on Brain Death*

Background Very few prior studies have investigated the presence of ascites as a prognostic factor in children with cirrhosis. To the best of our knowledge, there are no prior studies evaluating the relationship between severity of ascites and patient survival in children with biliary atresia and cirrhosis. Aims To evaluate the association between severity of ascites and survival of children with cirrhosis and biliary atresia. Methods All children with cirrhosis secondary to biliary atresia evaluated at our institution from 2000 to 2014 were included in this study. Patients were classified into four groups: NA = no ascites; A1 = grade 1 ascites; A2 = grade 2 ascites; and A3 = grade 3 ascites. The primary endpoint of the study was mortality within the first year after patient inclusion. Ninetyday mortality was also evaluated. Prognostic factors related to both endpoints also were studied. Results One-year patient survival for NA was 97.1%, versus 80.8% for A1, versus 52% for A2, versus 13.6 for A3 (p < 0.001). The presence of ascites increased mortality by 17 times. In the multivariate analysis, clinically detectable ascites (HR 3.14,

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Detected levels of caffeine in umbilical cord blood did not decrease occurrence of apnea of prematurity, but it had a borderline effect delaying its occurrence, suggesting that even a low level of caffeine in umbilical cord blood might delay occurrence of apnea spells.