title: Can blood gas analysis indicate when mechanical ventilation should start in patients with acute myocardial infarction?
abstract: Arterial blood gas analysis of 69 patients with acute myocardial infarction were evaluated to provide a basis for respiratory care. Patients were divided into two groups: group A which received oxygen therapy only (n = 38) and group B which received oxygen therapy with mechanical ventilation (n = 31). The patients in group B were further divided into surviving cases (n = 14) and fatal cases (n = 17). On admission patients assigned to group B had lower PaO2 values than those placed in group A. In group B, there was no difference in the P/F value before mechanical ventilation of the surviving and the fatal cases, but the survivors demonstrated an improvement of the P/F value and an increase in cardiac index after mechanical ventilation. It may be reasonable to assume that a P/F value of less than 250 serves as an indicator for the initiation of mechanical ventilation. An increase in the P/F value after mechanical ventilation seems to be a valuable index to estimate prognosis in respiratory failure.
authors.affiliation: Department of Critical Care Medicine, Sapporo City Hospital, Japan.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Matsubara
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kemmotsu
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Tedo
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gando
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tsujinaga
mesh_terms: D001784:Blood Gas Analysis; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D006801:Humans; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000097:blood / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D010102:Oxygen Inhalation Therapy; D012121:Respiration, Artificial