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Background: Sepsis is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in intensive care units. This study explored the possible role of vascular endothelial growth factor-C (VEGF-C) and podoplanin (PDPN) in sepsis.

Variations in the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) could be used as a biomarker in critically ill patients with sepsis and septic shock. Inflammation potently upregulates VEGF-C expression via macrophages with an unpredictable response. This study aimed to assess one of the newer biomarkers (VEGF-C) in patients with sepsis or septic shock and its clinical value as a diagnostic and prognostic tool.

Objective: To demonstrate the relationship between intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH) and cardiac output (CO) in mechanically ventilated (MV), critically ill patients.

Introduction: Cupriavidus pauculus is a rarely isolated non-fermentative, aerobic bacillus, which occasionally causes severe human infections, especially in immunocompromised patients. Strains have been isolated from various clinical and environmental sources.

Sepsis represents one the main cause of death in patients admitted to the intensive care. Biomarkers offer an alternative approach to the diagnostic and prognostic evaluation and improve the outcomes. Angiopoietin 2 (Ang-2) and Tyrosine kinase 2 (Tie-2) are biomarkers which may be involved in sepsis, Ang-2 being responsible for vascular remodelling while Tie-2 is their endothelial receptor.

Introduction: Intraabdominal pressure monitoring is not routinely performed because the procedure assumes some invasiveness and, like other invasive procedures, it needs to have a clear indication to be performed. The causes of IAH are various. Mechanically ventilated patients have numerous parameters set in order to be optimally ventilated and it is important to identify the ones with the biggest interference in abdominal pressure. Although it was stated that mechanical ventilation is a potential factor of high intraabdominal pressure the set parameters which may lead to this diagnostic are not clearly named.

Clostridium difficile, an anaerobic, spore-forming, toxin-forming, gram-positive bacillus present in the bacterial flora of the colon is the principal cause of nosocomial diarrhoea in adults.

Background: Recommendations have been made, following the multicenter Surviving Sepsis Campaign study, to standardize the definition of severe sepsis with reference to several parameters such as haemodynamic stability, acid-base balance, bilirubin, creatinine, International Normalized Ratio (INR), urine output and pulmonary functional value of the ratio between arterial oxigen partial pressure and inspiratory oxigen concentration. Procalcitonin (PCT) is considered to be a gold standard biomarker for the inflammatory response, and recent studies have shown that it may help to discover whether a seriously ill person is developing sepsis. C-reactive protein (CRP) is also used as a marker of inflammation in the body, as its blood levels increase if there is any inflammation in the body. The aim of this study was to evaluate serum procalcitonin and C-reactive protein levels as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers of severe sepsis.

Introduction: Angiopoietin-2 (ANG-2) is a new biomarker whose blood-serum values increase in sepsis and its expression is elevated in line with the severity of the degree of inflammation. The aim of this study was to identify the diagnostic role of ANG-2 in patients with non-surgical sepsis addmitted to an intensive care unit.