BACKGROUND: Patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) and history of stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA) have an increased rate of recurrent cardiac events and intracranial hemorrhages. METHODS AND RESULTS: We evaluated treatment effects of ticagrelor versus clopidogrel in ACS patients with and without a history of prior stroke or ...

Innovative treatments of epileptic seizures are needed to improve the outcome of epilepsy. We studied the effect of pranlukast on seizure outcome in patients with intractable partial epilepsy. An open study was conducted to evaluate the clinical efficacy of 24-week pranlukast add-on therapy in 50 patients with intractable partial seizures. ...

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown that after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), heart rate variability (HRV) becomes decreased, even more significantly than in patients after myocardial infarction (MI). According to some reports, unlike in patients after MI, decreased postoperative HRV does not increase mortality in CABG patients. The aim of ...

The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence of premature luteinization in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome and compared the main determinants of success in in-vitro fertilization in PCOS patients with and without premature luteinization. Retrospective analysis of 180 PCOS women of Chinese Han origin with infertility who ...

To determine the foetal outcome and mode of delivery in patients with meconium stained liquor during labour. The observational study was carried out at the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Unit-II of Liaquat University of Medical Health Sciences from June to November 2007. The patients with gestational age more than 37 weeks ...

Background/Aims: Although capsule endoscopy (CE) is widely used to evaluate small bowel diseases, its diagnostic power has not been firmly established. The aim of this study was to compare the abilities of the "Miro- Cam" and "PillCam SB" to detect Z-line and duodenal papillae. Methodology: The records of 141 patients ...

Termination of Atrial Fibrillation During Catheter Ablation Predicts Better Outcome. Background: The reliable endpoint for ablation of longstanding persistent atrial fibrillation (LPAF) has not been clearly established. Methods and Results: This study included 140 patients who underwent catheter ablation for drug-refractory LPAF. A stepwise ablation approach included circumferential pulmonary vein ...

Background: Classical techniques like endoscopy and esophageal pH-metry are the gold standard to study patients with symptoms related to gastroesophageal reflux disease. Although these techniques have been useful over the years both for diagnosis and therapeutic guidance, there are still many patients with typical or atypical gastroesophageal reflux disease symptoms ...

Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF) may progress to persistent AF. We studied the clinical correlates and the effect of rhythm-control strategy on AF progression. RecordAF was a worldwide prospective survey of AF management. Consecutive eligible patients with recent-onset AF were included and allocated to rate or rhythm control according to patient/physician ...

The mitral annulus (MA) has a complex dynamic geometry that is difficult to visualize in two dimensions; hence, novel real-time three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography (RT-3D-TEE) provides insights into its dynamic nature. The study aim was to investigate changes in MA geometry in normal subjects and to explore differences in patients with ...

PURPOSE: To determine seed loss and pulmonary migration rate over time in permanent seed prostate brachytherapy. METHODS AND MATERIALS: We analyzed the first 495 patients treated in our department. All patients were treated with loose (125)I seeds with automated seed delivery system and real-time intraoperative planning. Pelvic fluoroscopic imaging was ...

To evaluate priapism rates in individuals <18 years of age with sickle cell disease (SCD) at a referral center. An evaluation was made of 599 consecutive male patients with SCD, separated according to type of hemoglobinopathy (HbSS, HbSC and HbS-β-thalassemia). Age at first episode and number of episodes were recorded. Cases ...

Left ventricular (LV) torsion is a fundamental component of wall motion and plays an important role to optimize ventricular ejection fraction. The aim of our study was to calculate by speckle tracking echocardiography LV twist angle in patients with hypertension and LV remodeling, analyzing torsional indices in all patterns of ...

ABSTRACT: INTRODUCTION: Computerized tomography is frequently employed in the critically ill, often using intravenous radiocontrast material. Many of these patients have clinical features that are considered risk factors for contrast induced nephropathy, but are simultaneously at risk for renal injury from other factors related to their acute illnesses. The attributable ...

Introduction: Data on clinical differences between episodic (eCH) and chronic cluster headache (cCH) and accompanying migraine features are limited.Methods: History and clinical features of 209 consecutive cluster headache patients (144 eCH, 65 cCH; male:female ratio 3.4 : 1) were obtained in a tertiary headache centre by face-to-face interviews. Relationship between occurrence of ...

Background  The profiles of gastroesophageal reflux (GER) and laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) in patients with obstructive sleep apnea/hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) have never been explored. The aim of the study was to investigate the reflux profile in OSAHS patients. Methods  Consecutive snoring out-patients suspected with having OSAHS and 20 healthy volunteers were ...

PURPOSE: The present study aimed to measure postsurgical swallowing function in patients 5 years after the surgical treatment of tongue carcinoma. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Using a retrospective cohort study design, the investigators enrolled postsurgical patients treated for tongue carcinomas in Hokkaido University Hospital. The primary outcome variable was oropharyngeal swallow ...

AIMS: To compare the efficacies of methylene blue (MB) and carbon nanoparticles (CNs) as tracers for sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB), and assess the value of SLNB in predicting the cervical LN status of patients with thyroid microcarcinoma. METHODS: This retrospective analysis comprised 200 thyroid microcarcinoma patients who underwent intraoperative ...

New signal processing techniques have enabled the use of the vectorcardiogram (VCG) for the detection of cardiac ischemia. Thus, we studied this signal during ventricular depolarization in 80 ischemic patients, before undergoing angioplasty, and 52 healthy subjects with the objective of evaluating the vectorcardiographic difference between both groups so leading ...

BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS: Propofol is increasingly being used in sedated colonoscopy. This paper assesses the safety and efficacy of nonanesthesiologist-administered propofol in a large series of colonoscopies. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A prospective registry of consecutive American Society of Anesthetics (ASA) class I and II outpatients undergoing colonoscopy was carried ...

BACKGROUND: The association between premature ovarian failure (POF) and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) was investigated previously, but none of the studies have looked at cardiac autonomic functions in these patients. In this study, we aimed to evaluate cardiac autonomic functions in patients with POF. METHODS: We enrolled 26 female patients (mean ...

Objectives: To compare bicarbonate kinetics and acid base status in HD and HDF for the same patient; and to investigate the effect of patient physiologic parameters on these kinetics. Methods: In order to monitor HCO3- kinetics during dialysis, acid-base parameters, pH, blood gases partial pressures, and HCO3- concentrations were recorded ...

The objective of our study is to determine the positive rate for urolithiasis in male and female patients, and evaluate whether there has been any change at our institution in the use and outcome of unenhanced multidetector CT (CT KUB) performed in the emergency department (ER) for patients presenting with ...

AIM: Adaptive servo ventilation (ASV) is a method of ventilator support aimed to treat central sleep apnea (CSA). We investigated the effects of an acute use of ASV in chronic heart failure (CHF) patients with CSA and the potential influence on sympathetic nerve activity. METHODS: Patients were studied with ambulatory ...

PURPOSE: Since differentiation between low-grade glioma (LGG) and high-grade glioma (HGG) remains challenging according to MRI criteria alone, we investigated the discriminative value of additional dynamic FET PET in patients with MRI-suspected LGG. METHODS: Included in this retrospective study were 127 patients with newly diagnosed MRI-suspected LGG and dynamic FET ...

The purpose of the study is to report the natural changes of preexcitation syndrome (PS). METHODS: Electrophysiologic study was performed for syncope (n = 8), atrioventricular reentrant tachycardia (AVRT) (n = 42), atrial fibrillation (n = 3), adverse presentation (n = 4), or for asymptomatic PS (n = 22) and ...

Additional Tachyarrhythmias in IST. Background: Symptom recurrence following sinus node modification (SNM) for inappropriate sinus tachycardia (IST) remains significant despite achieving acute procedural success. The impact of non-IST tachyarrhythmias on symptom recurrence remains poorly characterized. Objectives: The objective was to determine the prevalence and nature of additional tachyarrhythmias preceding and following ...

Distal oesophageal spasm is a rare and under-investigated motility abnormality. Recent studies indicate effective bolus transit in varying percentages of distal oesophageal spasm patients. Explore functional aspects including contraction onset velocity and contraction amplitude cut-off values for simultaneous contractions to predict complete bolus transit. We re-examined data from 107 impedance-manometry ...

GOALS:: We aim to look at the prevalence of multichannel intraluminal impedance-pH (MII-pH) studies, which are difficult to interpret secondary to low distal baseline impedance (DBI), and characterize them by their respective diagnosis and DBI. BACKGROUND:: Some patients exhibit low DBI because of fluid retention in the esophagus or acute ...

Objective: Peritonitis is still one of the major causes of peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients' dropout. In the present study, we analyzed the relationship between gastrointestinal (GI) problems and peritonitis in our CAPD patients. Methods: It is a prospective observational study. In December, 2008, 158 patients on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis ...

In patients with non-cardiac chest pain (NCCP), gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is the commonest cause and ambulatory pH is of great value in identifying these patients. However, parameters in the context of predicting therapeutic response are still unknown. By extending the monitoring period, we could better evaluate the best evidence ...

Pressure-flow study combined with cystourethroscopy were used as the major method to define female bladder neck obstruction in China. However, the definition of urodynamics for female bladder outlet obstruction (BOO) is not clear so far. Video-urodynamic study (VUDS) would provide more information to define the female BOO, but it is ...

OBJECTIVES: Fabric-based endocervical and exocervical biopsy tools were compared with exocervical punch biopsy and sharp endocervical curettage. We compared the level of pain reported by the patient and the amount of bleeding rated by the physician relative to the type of biopsy used. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a 2-center ...

Clostridium difficile infection is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality, increased duration of hospitalization, and a marked economic impact. Several case reports and case series have described C. difficile infection in excluded bowels or immediately after reversal of defunctioning ileostomy. The aim of this prospective study is to detect whether ...

Emerging treatment options targeting the pathogenetic mechanisms in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and the need to monitor efficacy during treatment trials necessitate the use of biomarkers, which not only may facilitate early and reliable diagnosis, but may also assist in the stratification of patient populations according to their rate of progression. ...

Objective. To analyze typical maternal heart rate (MHR) patterns in the first and second stages of labor. Design. Observational study. Setting. Tertiary care community hospital. Population. Normal term parturients with epidural anesthesia. Methods. Confirmed MHR and uterine activity were simultaneously recorded. The average MHR was analyzed 10 seconds before, as ...

OBJECTIVE: This study was performed to evaluate whether heart-type fatty acid-binding protein (H-FABP) could predict 28-day mortality in patients with severe sepsis and septic shock. METHODS: We performed a prospective observational study and included consecutive patients with severe sepsis and septic shock. Patients' demographic data, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health ...

BACKGROUND: Few studies to date have examined the accuracy of computed tomographic angiography (CTA) compared to digital subtraction angiography (DSA) in diagnosing intracranial stenosis. The purpose of this study was to compare CTA to DSA in diagnosing intracranial stenosis and to explore the impact of the addition of DSA on ...

Chiari III malformations are extremely rare hindbrain malformations that are associated with a high early mortality rate, or severe neurologic deficits in the survivors. They are characterized by an occipital or cervical encephalocele, along with anomalies commonly seen with the type II malformation. Chiari III in association with proatlas abnormality ...

Background and study aims: In patients undergoing colonoscopy, 22 % - 28 % of polyps and 20 % - 24 % of adenomas are missed. It is unclear which factors contribute to polyp miss rates, but colorectal cancer detected within 3 years after colonoscopy may originate from missed lesions. The ...

BACKGROUND: The aim of the present study was to translate the Western Ontario Osteoarthritis Shoulder (WOOS) index into Swedish and to test its validity, reliability, and responsiveness in patients with subacromial pain. METHODS: The validity of the WOOS translation was tested in 54 patients who completed the WOOS and the ...

Cross-sectional studies have shown that low vitamin D (25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D)) is associated with increased systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) activity. This study is the first to assess the temporal relationship between 25(OH)D levels and onset of SLE flare. This assessment was made possible because of the specimen bank and database ...

INTRODUCTION: Muscle tension dysphonia (MTD) is a voice disorder in the absence of current organic laryngeal pathology, without obvious psychogenic or neurological aetiology. The laryngeal features of MTD include a posterior glottal gap and supraglottic hyperfunctional activities; however, it remains unclear if these features are specific to MTD. This report ...

Background: The optimization of phosphate (P) removal by peritoneal dialysis (PD) is often underestimated. Our objective was to investigate peritoneal P clearance and its relationship with standard adequacy targets, hyperphosphatemia and automated PD (APD) parameters. Methods: Dialysis dose, P clearances (24-hour urine and effluent samples), estimated percentage of diffusive P ...

The objective of this study was to develop new risk classifications for conversion to Alzheimer's disease (AD) by comparing the relative reliability of classifiers in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The 397 MCI subjects and all baseline data, including characteristics, neuropsychological tests, cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers and MRI findings in ...

In hemodialysis patients, lower body mass index and weight loss have been associated with higher mortality rates, a phenomenon sometimes called the obesity paradox. This apparent paradox might be explained by loss of muscle mass. The authors thus examined the relation to mortality of changes in dry weight and changes ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:GM pathology is considered a major determinant of disability in MS, but the comprehension of its origin and progression rate is limited by the uncertainty of dating the biologic disease onset. Thus, we planned a longitudinal study aimed at analyzing and comparing cortical pathology in pediatric and adult ...

BACKGROUND: Continuous flow left ventricular assist devices (CF-LVADs) have yielded improved outcomes compared with pulsatile flow devices for patients on long-term support. However, significant rates of gastrointestinal bleeding (GIB) have been observed during CF-LVAD support. METHODS: From March 2006 through March 2011, 86 patients with chronic heart failure underwent implantation ...

Introduction: Fournier's gangrene (FG) is the necrotizing fasciitis of the perineum and genital area with high mortality. Materials and Methods: A retrospective review included 41 patients diagnosed with FG in our hospitals from 1995 to 2010, divided into survivors and nonsurvivors. We analyzed anamnestic, clinical and laboratory data. Results: The ...

Background: Little is known about the incidence of intestinal perforation in patients undergoing dialysis. Concerns exist that sevelamer hydrochloride may increase the risk of intestinal perforation. We examined long-term trends for the incidence of intestinal perforation among US dialysis patients. Methods: We studied all dialysis patients (1992-2005) who had Medicare ...