No abstract

Autonomic function of MODS patients is blunted, and this attenuation has prognostic implications. The extensive influence of MODS on autonomic function overwhelms and masks the well-known age dependency of autonomic function seen in healthy persons.

In this randomized trial addressing addition of IABP in CS patients, mechanical support was associated only with modest effects on reduction of APACHE II score as a marker of severity of disease, improvement of cardiac index, reduction of inflammatory state, or reduction of BNP biomarker status compared with medical therapy alone. However, the limitations of our present trial preclude any definitive conclusion, but request for a larger prospective, randomized, multicentered trial with mortality as primary end point.