Spontaneous combined lung and bowel hernia following an episode of acute bronchitis.

Spontaneous lung hernias are unusual conditions which usually follow attacks of excessive straining. Spontaneous bowel hernias are even rarer. Here, we present the first reported case of a combined spontaneous herniation of both the lung and bowel following an attack of acute bronchitis and coughing together with a description of surgical approach and repair.

Antiplatelet actions of statins and fibrates are mediated by PPARs.

Objectives: Statins and fibrates are hypolipidemic drugs which decrease cardiac events in individuals without raised levels of cholesterol. These drugs inhibit platelet function, but the mechanisms by which this pleiotropic effect is exerted are not known.

Methods And Results: We used a range of approaches to show statins inhibit human platelet activation in vitro while engaging PPARalpha and PPARgamma.