Vely,Table Baseline pH EtCO2 (torr) PaCO2 (torr) PaCO2 tCO2 gradient 7.36 ?0.05 32 ?5 41

Vely,Table Baseline pH EtCO2 (torr) PaCO2 (torr) PaCO2 tCO2 gradient 7.36 ?0.05 32 ?5 41 ?5 9? End of apnea test 7.19 ?0.02 56 ?10 67 ?10 11 ?and the predicted and measured PaCO2 were 60 ?10 and 67 ?10 torr, respectively. All patients achieved an adequate arterial pH and there was no change in the PaCO2 tCO2 gradient during the testing (P = 0.195, Student’s t-test). (Table; mean ?SD). Conclusions: Advantages of this technique over the previous method include: 1. allows for continuous measurement of EtCO2 during the apnea test (EtCO2 is predictive of rises in PaCO2); 2. eliminates the likelihood of desaturation episodes; 3. better monitoring for respiratory effort than provided by visual inspection alone.PHigh serum protein S100B levels in brain-dead patientsS Korfias*, I Dimopoulou, A Anthi, C Psachoulia? L Kiriou? C Roussos, DE Sakas* *Department of Neurosurgery, and Department of Critical Care CCT196969 web Medicine, Evangelismos Hospital, 4 Marasli Street, 106 75 Athens, Greece; Department of Critical Care Medicine, Hellenic Red Cross Hospital; �Department of Biochemistry, Evangelismos Hospital, Medical School, National Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece S100B is a protein synthesized in astroglial and Schwann cells in the central nervous system (CNS). Only very low concentrations of this protein are normally present in serum, whereas high levels of S100B have been found in the blood of patients suffering from a variety of CNS disorders, including tumors, cerebrovascular insults or traumatic brain injury (BI). Data on S100B in patients with brain-death are sparse. To clarify this issue, 48 brain-dead (BD) patients (34 men, 14 women) with a mean (?SD) age of 48 ?21 years (range 14?5 years) were studied. Brain-death was due to trauma PubMed ID:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20732896 (n = 35), spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (n = 11), intracerebral thrombosis (n = 1) and intracerebral aneurysm (n = 1). For comparison, 36 patients (32 men, 4 women), with severe traumatic BI who did not develop braindeath, having a mean age of 33 ?15 years (range 17?0 years) were also studied. All patients were intubated and mechanically ventilated. In BD patients, blood samples for S100B determination were obtained after clinical diagnosis of brain-death. In BI patients, blood samples were collected upon admission in the hospital and every 24 hours thereafter, for a maximum of seven consecutive days; in these patients peak and average values of S100B were used for analysis. Protein S100B levels in BD patients (median 7.68 /l, interquartile range 4.06?4.10 /l) were significantly higher compared to the peak (median 1.30 /l, interquartile range 0.60?.90 /l, P < 0.001, Mann hitney U test) or to the average (median 0.60 /l, interquartile range 0.36?.97 /l, P < 0.001, Mann hitney U test) values of S100B in BI patients. In conclusion, serum concentrations of protein S100B are high in brain-death victims. Further prospective studies are required to determine the predictive value of S100B levels in the early diagnosis of brain-death.Critical CareVol 6 Suppl22nd International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency MedicinePQuality of life after severe head injury correlates to S100B serum levelRD Rothoerl, R Meyer, C Woertgen, A Brawanski Department of Neurosurgery, University of Regensburg, 93042 Regensburg, Germany Objective: S100B protein is a new possible indicator of brain damage after severe head injury. Peak values of S100B serum concentrations during the first days after trauma were signif.