This book is the result of several years of enthusiastic planning and effort. Much of this enthusiasm came from the experience of devel{)ping Critical Care Consultant, a large BASIC program for critical care applications (St. Louis, C. V. Mosby, 1985). Working with clinicians showed me that many were interested in learning about clinical applications of computers (and even programming in small doses) but were faced with a paucity of clinical application software. Few had the time or training to develop any such software on their own. After a search through the existing medical literature unearthed relatively little in the way of usable programs, I decided that a series of small clinical applications programs would be of use to the medical community. At the onset a number of strategic decisions were made: (1) the programs would be written in BASIC, in view of its universal popularity, (2) the units used for clinical laboratory tests would be those in common use in the United States, (3) the programs would be simple and easily understood and employ no exotic tricks that were not easily transported across computers, (4) references to the literature would be provided to allow the clinician to critically assess the algorithm or method used himself or to follow up on subsequent criticisms that may have been published, and (5) the programs would demonstrate reasonable standards of software engineering in terms of clarity, trans portability, documentation, and ease of modification.

Inhaltsangabe0 Notes on Programming Techniques.- I Cardiac.- 1 Corrected QT Interval (QT).- 2 Digoxin Dosing Algorithm (DIG).- 3 Diagnosis of Acute Chest Pain (ACP).- 4 CCU Predictive Instrument (CCU).- 5 Hemodynamic Monitoring (HDM) Program.- II Pulmonary.- 6 Predicted Arterial PO2 (PREDO2).- 7 Arterial Saturation from PO2 (SAT).- 8 Arterial PO2 from Saturation (PFS).- 9 Air/Oxygen Mixture (MIX).- 10 Ventilator Adjustment for Target PCO2 (TPCO2).- 11 Oxygen Therapeutics (OXYGEN).- 12 Alveolar Gas Equation (AGE).- 13 Physiologic Dead Space (PDS).- 14 Pulmonary Function Tests (PFT).- 15 Asthma Severity Index (ASTHMA).- III Renal.- 16 Measured Creatinine Clearance (MCC).- 17 Estimated Creatinine Clearance (ECC).- 18 Renal Failure Index (RFI).- 19 Renal Free Water Clearance (FWC).- 20 Fractional Excretion of Filtered Sodium (FEFS).- IV Trauma and Resuscitation.- 21 Abbreviated Burn Severity Index (ABSI).- 22 Acute Trauma Index (PATH Index) (ATI).- 23 CHOP Trauma Index (CHOP).- 24 Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS).- 25 Neonatal Apgar Score (APGAR).- 26 Pediatric Endotracheal Tube Selection (ETT).- 27 Resting Energy Expenditure (REE).- V Therapeutics.- 28 Maintenance Intravenous Fluids (MIV).- 29 Parenteral Iron Therapy (IRON).- 30 Calcium Protein Binding (CALCIUM).- 31 Estimated Body Surface Area (BSA).- 32 Ponderal (Obesity) Index (PI).- 33 Calculated Serum Osmolality (OSM).- 34 Estimated Blood Volume (EBV).- 35 Allowable Blood Loss (ABL).- 36 Blood Transfusion Guidelines (BTG).- VI Drug Dosing.- 37 Mcg/Kg/Min Drug Infusion #1 (MCG 1).- 38 Mcg/Kg/Min Drug Infusion #2 (MCG 2).- 39 Mg/Min Drug Infusion (MGM).- 40 Mcg/Kg/Min Infusion Rate Finder (IRF).- Appendix: Abstracts of Some BASIC Computer Programs.