HIV infected patients have an increased cardiovascular risk that may be linked not only to the infection itself but also to the metabolic side effects of the antiretroviral therapy. The aim of our study was to determine markers of aortic arterial stiffness, carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) and parameters of left ...

We report the initial and follow-up ultrasonography (US) findings in a pediatric case of wandering spleen with symptoms of acute abdomen, as a rare entity. A four-year-old boy was referred with complaints of blunt abdominal pain, vomiting and fatigue. US detected an oval- shaped, mildly enlarged spleen with inferomedial displacement. ...

In order to conduct research relying on ultrasound images, it is necessary to access a large number of relevant cases represented by images and their interpretation. DICOM standard defines the structured reporting information object. Templates are tree-like structures which offer structural guidance in report construction. Laying the foundations of a ...

Lipomas are benign mesenchymal tumors, which accounts for 50% of soft tissue tumors. Although the etiopathogenesis has not yet been fully understood, it is known that lipomas developed at a rate of 1% in the related localizations after traumas. Trauma initiates inflammatory reactions in fatty tissue and these can be ...

We present the case of a woman with known risk factors for embolism with multiple kidney infarctions. She was admitted with left renal colic, discrete hematuria and subfebrility. She was under acenocumarolum treatment but without efficient anticoagulation. Ultrasound performed at the emergency room revealed smaller right kidney (congenital hypoplasia) and ...

The currently accepted pathophysiological concept behind median arcuate ligament syndrome (MALS) is vascular compromise by atypically positioned median arcuate ligament. Despite many articles on MALS, only sparse data on the outcome in general and the rather poor outcome after intervention have been reported and this makes at least questionable the ...

The purpose of this study was to define the criteria for use in differentiating benign and malignant nodules with the help of the receiver operating characteristic analysis and to increase the objective diagnostic accuracy of ultrasonography. A total of 363 patients (307 women, 56 men) with 363 nodules (22 malignant ...

In the last years musculoskeletal ultrasound (US) has become a very useful imaging tool for the evaluation of rheumatic patients and a natural extension of the clinical examination of the ankle and foot. Musculoskeletal US allows the evaluation of the symptomatic and asymptomatic ankle and foot with a detailed analysis ...

To assess the changes in the angiogenic status of rectal cancer before and after preoperative radiotherapy (RT) using endosonography (ES). Fifty-four patients with rectal cancer were examined by ES before and 6-7 weeks after preoperative RT and . The tumour size, stage, echostructure and vascularization before and after RT were ...

The incidence of agenesis of inferior vena cava in the general population was estimated at 0.6 - 0.8%. In patients with deep vein thrombosis the frequency of agenesis was estimated between 5 and 6.7% in young people. In this pictorial essay, we present the ultrasound findings obtained in 8 patients ...

Milwaukee shoulder syndrome (MSS) describes a destructive shoulder arthropathy associated with of calcium hydroxyapatite and calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate crystals deposition found mainly in elderly women. Pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS) is a benign proliferative disorder of the synovium usually seen in young adults, found frequently in the knee joint. We present ...

Insulin treatment can lead to local soft tissue dystrophies. We present the cases of two insulin-treated subjects with two different injecting systems: a basal/bolus and a continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (insulin pump). The local cutaneous/subcutaneous dystrophies adversely affected their glycaemic values. A conventional and a high resolution ultrasound (20MHz Dermascan) ...

This study was undertaken to characterize the ATP, adenosine and glutamate outflow evoked by depolarization with high K(+) concentrations, in slices of rat hippocampus. We utilized the microelectrode biosensor technique and extracellular electrophysiological recording for the real-time monitoring of the efflux of ATP, adenosine and glutamate. ATP, adenosine and glutamate ...

The aim of the present study was to review postoperative complications of pediatric patients undergoing colectomy for ulcerative colitis (UC) or inflammatory bowel disease-unspecified (IBD-U) with a focus on preoperative immunosuppression including exposure to infliximab. We performed a retrospective chart review of all of the children with UC or IBD-U ...

Rosiglitazone is an anti-diabetic drug acting as an insulin sensitizer. We recently found that rosiglitazone also inhibits the vascular isoform of ATP-sensitive K(+) channels and compromises vasodilatory effects of β-adrenoceptor activation and pinacidil. As its potency for the channel inhibition is in the micromolar range, rosiglitazone may be used as ...

Gene expression of Cyp3a11 is reduced by activation of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) by Gram-negative or Gram-positive bacterial components, LPS or lipoteichoic acid (LTA) respectively. The primary adaptor protein in the TLR signalling pathway, TIRAP, plays differential roles in LPS- and LTA-mediated down-regulations of Cyp3a11 mRNA. Here, we have determined the ...

5-HT is taken up by and stored in adrenergic nerves and periarterial nerve stimulation (PNS) releases 5-HT to cause vasoconstriction in rat mesenteric arteries. The present study investigated whether PNS-released 5-HT stored in adrenergic nerves affects the function of perivascular calcitonin gene-related peptide-containing (CGRPergic) nerves. Rat mesenteric vascular beds without ...

Statistical analysis is universally used in the interpretation of the results of basic biomedical research, being expected by referees and readers alike. Its role in helping researchers to make reliable inference from their work and its contribution to the scientific process cannot be doubted, but can be improved. There is ...

The number of possible small organic molecules of different structure is virtually limitless. One of the main goals of chemical biologists is to identify, from this "chemical space", entities that affect biological processes or systems in a specific manner. This can lead to a better understanding of the regulation and ...

Surface damage of the tibial polyethylene insert in TKA is thought to diminish with increasing conformity, based on computed lower contact stresses. Added constraint from higher conformity may, however, result in greater forces in vivo. We therefore determined whether increased conformity was associated with increased surface pitting, delamination, creep, and ...

The majority of the cases of nephroblastoma do not present with abdominal pain. We present a patient with an acute surgical abdomen due to perforated appendicitis and an incidental abdominal mass. He underwent an urgent appendectomy after which tumor specific therapy was successfully initiated.

Cancer cells often contain p53 abnormalities that impair cell-cycle checkpoint progression and cause resistance to various anti-cancer treatments. DNA damage occurs at actively transcribed genes during G1-phase in yeast cells that have a deficient mRNA export capacity. Here, we show that germinal center-associated nuclear protein (GANP), a homologue of yeast ...

In refractory pouchitis, infliximab (IFX) has been used as rescue therapy; however, there is no clinical evidence for the use of adalimumab (ADA). The aim of this study was to report the efficacy of ADA in patients with refractory pouchitis previously treated with IFX. A retrospective, open-label, case series was ...

To investigate reversal effects of pantoprazole (PPZ) on multidrug resistance (MDR) in human gastric adenocarcinoma cells in vivo and in vitro. Human gastric adenocarcinoma cell SGC7901 was cultured in RPMI-1640 medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum and antibiotics in a humidified 5% CO(2) atmosphere at 37°C. Adriamycin (ADR)-resistant cells ...

Resistance commonly arises in infants exposed to single-dose nevirapine (sdNVP) for prevention of mother to child transmission. Although K103N and Y181C are common following sdNVP, multiple other mutations also confer NVP resistance. It remains unclear whether specific NVP resistance mutations or combinations of mutations predict virologic failure in infants when ...

The definition of Purkinje cell zones by their white matter compartments, their physiological properties, and their molecular identity and the birthdate of their Purkinje cells will be reviewed.

xCT is the functional subunit of the cystine/glutamate antiporter system xc-, which exchanges intracellular glutamate with extracellular cystine. xCT has been reported to play roles in the maintenance of intracellular redox and ambient extracellular glutamate, which may affect neuronal function. To assess a potential role of xCT in the mouse ...

Superior labral anterior-posterior (SLAP) lesions are a common cause of pain and disability in athletes. Individual studies have suggested low patient satisfaction with SLAP repairs in throwing athletes in particular and it is unclear how frequently athletes return to their previous level of competetion. We systematically reviewed the literature to ...

Strict criteria have been used before removing cervical collars in patients with injuries who have midline pain or are unable to be reliably examined. This sometimes leads to prolonged immobilization in cervical collars or use of MRI to rule out injury. Several studies suggest a collar may be removed in ...

The evolutionary origins of Ig-producing B cells appear to be linked to the emergence of fish in this planet. There are three major classes of living fish species, which from most primitive to modern they are referred to as agnathan (e.g., lampreys), Chondrichthyes (e.g., sharks), and teleost fish (e.g., rainbow ...

We propose a theoretical framework for the behavioral modulation of pain based on constructivism, positing that task engagement, such as listening for errors in a musical passage, can establish a construction of reality that effectively replaces pain as a competing construction. Graded engagement produces graded reductions in pain as indicated ...

The World Health Organization recommends that treatment of tuberculosis (TB) in HIV-infected patients should be integrated with HIV care. In December 2008, a separate outdoor-integrated TB/HIV clinic was instituted for attendees of a large urban HIV clinic in Uganda. We sought to evaluate associated TB and HIV treatment outcomes. Routinely ...

The optimal approach to HIV-associated Kaposi sarcoma (HIV-KS) in sub-Saharan Africa is unknown. With large-scale rollout of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in South Africa, we hypothesized that survival in HIV-KS would improve and administration of chemotherapy in addition to HAART would be feasible and improve KS-specific outcomes. We conducted ...

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common cause of chronic liver disease in children and adolescents in the United States, and most probably also in the rest of the industrialized world.As the prevalence of NAFLD in childhood increases with the worldwide obesity epidemic, there is an urgent need ...

Individual types of retinal neurons are distributed to minimize proximity to neighboring cells. Many of these same cell types extend dendrites to provide coverage of the retinal surface. These two cardinal features of retinal mosaics are disrupted, for certain cell types, in mice deficient for the Down syndrome cell adhesion ...

Biventricular pacing (BiVP) improves cardiac output (CO) and mean arterial pressure (MAP) after cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) in selected patients at risk for acute left heart failure after cardiac surgery. Optimization of atrioventricular delay (AVD) and interventricular delay (VVD) to maximize the hemodynamic effect of pacing requires rapid and accurate data ...

Wild-type mouse retina immunofluorescently labeled to reveal the populations of melanopsin-positive ganglion cells (green) and dopaminergic amacrine cells (magenta). Each cell type shows abnormal clustering and fasciculation in both Dscam- and Bax- deficient mice, though the profile of these features is distinct in the two mutants. The Journal of Comparative ...

The term "standard of care" has been used in law and medicine to determine whether medical care is negligent. However, the precise meaning of this concept is often unclear for both medical and legal professionals. Our purposes are to (1) examine the limitations of using standard of care as a ...

After the detection of low concentrations of prednisolone in racehorse urine samples collected at Italian racetracks, a study was initiated to investigate the accuracy of the analytical protocol used and the possible endogenous origin of detected prednisolone. Multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) MS(2) acquisition with a triple quadrupole (n = 780) and full ...

Multi-residue determination of pesticides in a complex matrix by online gel permeation chromatography-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GPC-GC/MS) is increasingly concerned for its high throughput, efficiency and accuracy. Study of matrix-induced suppression or enhancement of the instrument signals is important for the application of this technique. Matrix suppression and enhancement effects for ...

When performing trace gas analysis, it is not always possible to bring the source of volatiles and the gas analyzer together. In these cases, volatile storage containers, such as thermal desorption (TD) tubes, can be used for off-line measurement. TD is routinely combined with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), but so ...

Butane is an important industrial chemical in which photo-processes are very important for the initiation of reactions. Recent advances in nanosecond pulsed laser technology have led to high laser intensities being available to researchers to enable these photo-processes to be studied in compounds such as butane. The photo-decomposition, dissociation and ...

The reactivity of ClMn(H(2) O)(+) towards small organic compounds (L) was examined in a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectrometer. The organic compounds studied are aliphatic and aromatic alcohols, aliphatic amines, ketones, an epoxide, an ether, a thiol and a phosphine. All the reactions lead to the formation ...

Compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA) of the extracted caffeine can be used to determine the authenticity of the origin of tea. Elemental analysis-isotope ratio mass spectrometry (EA-IRMS), which is widely used to measure the carbon isotope ratio of caffeine, has a strict requirement for the purity of the extracted caffeine. To ...

Recent advances in stable isotope probing (SIP) have allowed direct linkage of microbial population structure and function. This paper details a new development of SIP, Stable Isotope Switching (SIS), which allows the simultaneous assessment of carbon (C) uptake, turnover and decay, and the elucidation of soil food webs within complex ...

The combination of fragmentation patterns in positive and negative ion modes could be helpful in understanding the structural features of these arylnaphthalide lignans. Fragmentation patterns of seven arylnaphthalide lignans were investigated using liquid chromatography/tandem time-of-flight mass spectrometry, and their fragmentation pathways were comprehensively characterized. In the positive ion mode, the ...

Developments in instrumentation aimed at microscopic sampling have led to an emphasis on applications analyzing small volumes and molecular concentrations within biological, chemical, and industrial samples. Simultaneous improvements in the sensitivity and versatility of nanospray mass spectrometers have made it possible to directly couple these sampling and analysis processes. We ...

Nonenzymatic glycation of phosphatidylethanolamines (PEs) seems to a have a role in angiogenesis and atherosclerosis. Glycated PEs are more easily oxidized, enhancing oxidative stress. This study aims to evaluate the influence of glycation on the formation of intermediate radical species during oxidation of glycated PEs. In the present study, the ...

Drug metabolites that have imine or enamine partial structures cause extra mass-to-charge (m/z) increases in online hydrogen/deuterium exchange (HDX) in addition to hydroxyl or amine protons. Online HDX and exact mass measurement were used herein to characterize this extra increase property, and to further confirm proposed metabolite structures. Metabolites of ...

Isocyanates are highly reactive species widely used in industry. They can cause irritation of the eyes, trigger asthma, etc. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were widely used in electrical equipments like capacitors and transformers in the last century and are still present in the environment today. PCBs are known to cause cancer ...