Table 1.

Characteristics of the animals and patients in the different studies

	Rats [11]	Children [14]	Adults [12]	Critically ill adult patients [13]
Number of animals/patients	24	6	24	20
Age (range)	Adult	1–5 years	37–73 years	52–79 years
Body weight (range)	0.25–0.3 kg	10–21 kg	64–93 kg	70–96 kg
Diagnostic group	Healthy	Surgery for congenital heart malformation	Coronary artery bypass surgery	Long-term sedated critically ill patients
Indication for propofol sedation	Experimental nonventilated	Postoperative mechanical ventilation	Postoperative mechanical ventilation	Nonpostoperative mechanical ventilation
Duration of propofol sedation (fixed or range)	5 min	6 h	5 h	45–120 h
Body temperature (range)	36.5–37.5 °C	35.0–37.5 °C	33.0–37.8 °C	35.3–39.6 °C
Renal function (range)	Normal	Normal	Normal	Normal–need for haemodialysis
Liver function	Normal	Normal	Normal	Normal
Cardiac function (range)	Normal	Cardiac dysfunction (see diagnostic group)	Normal (ejection fraction >40%)	Normal– end-stage cardiac failure