Eosinophils are a major intravascular location for tissue factor storage and exposure.

Blood cell progenitors were scanned for the presence of the coagulation starter protein tissue factor (TF) by immunoelectron microscopy. Thereby, substantial TF expression was observed in the precursor cells of eosinophils. TF levels were lower in basophil precursors and barely detectable in neutrophil progenitors.

The superficial cervical plexus block for postoperative pain therapy in carotid artery surgery. A prospective randomised controlled trial.

Objectives: Rapid and reliable neurological evaluation soon after carotid artery surgery is feasible with modern methods of general anesthesia, but postoperative pain therapy remains a challenge. Use of opioids can mask neurological deficits. We investigated whether superficial cervical plexus block reduced postoperative opioid consumption after carotid endarterectomy.

NIKE: a new clinical tool for establishing levels of indications for cataract surgery.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to construct a new clinical tool for establishing levels of indications for cataract surgery, and to validate this tool.

Methods: Teams from nine eye clinics reached an agreement about the need to develop a clinical tool for setting levels of indications for cataract surgery and about the items that should be included in the tool. The tool was to be called 'NIKE' (Nationell Indikationsmodell för Kataraktextraktion).

Synthesis and structure activity relationships of novel non-peptidic metallo-aminopeptidase inhibitors.

Racemic derivatives of 3-amino-2-tetralone were synthesised and evaluated for their ability to inhibit metallo-aminopeptidase activities. New compounds substituted in position 2 by methyl ketone, substituted oximes or hydroxamic acids as well as heterocyclic derivatives were evaluated against representative members of zinc-dependent aminopeptidases: leucine aminopeptidase (E.C.

(11)C-acetate PET in the early evaluation of prostate cancer recurrence.

Purpose: The first aim of the study was to investigate the diagnostic potential of (11)C-acetate PET in the early detection of prostate cancer recurrence. A second aim was the evaluation of early and late PET in this context.

Methods: The study population comprised 32 prostate cancer patients with early evidence of relapse after initial radiotherapy (group A) or radical surgery (group B).

Soil organic carbon and nitrogen accumulation in plots of rhizoma perennial peanut and bahiagrass grown in elevated carbon dioxide and temperature.

Carbon sequestration in soils might mitigate the increase of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. Two contrasting subtropical perennial forage species, bahiagrass (BG; Paspalum notatum Flügge; C4), and rhizoma perennial peanut (PP; Arachis glabrata Benth.; C3 legume), were grown at Gainesville, Florida, in field soil plots in four temperature zones of four temperature-gradient greenhouses, two each at CO2 concentrations of 360 and 700 micromol mol(-1).

Reemergence of gram-negative health care-associated bloodstream infections.

Background: Primary health care-associated bloodstream infections (PHA-BSIs) affect as many as 350 000 patients in the United States annually. Whereas gram-negative organisms were the leading cause before the 1970s, gram-positive organisms have been the predominant microbial isolates since then.

Methods: We identified all PHA-BSIs among adult inpatients in a 625-bed quaternary care hospital from January 1, 1996, through December 31, 2003, and evaluated trends in the microbial etiology, geographic distribution within the institution, and antimicrobial susceptibilities.

Mitochondrial sequence data expose the putative cosmopolitan polychaete Scoloplos armiger (Annelida, Orbiniidae) as a species complex.

Background: Polychaetes assigned as Scoloplos armiger (Orbiniidae) show a cosmopolitan distribution and have been encountered in all zoogeographic regions. Sibling S. armiger-like species have been revealed by recent studies using RAPDs and AFLP genetic data.

Benefit to patients of bilateral same-day cataract extraction: Randomized clinical study.

Purpose: To compare patients' self-assessed visual function after bilateral surgery performed on the same day with visual function after surgery in 1 eye at a time.

Setting: Department of Ophthalmology, Blekinge Hospital, Karlskrona, Sweden.

Methods: Patients with bilateral cataract were assigned randomly to 2 groups, patients having bilateral surgery on the same day and patients with 2 surgeries done 2 months apart.

The ADAM metalloprotease Kuzbanian is crucial for proper heart formation in Drosophila melanogaster.

We have screened a collection of EMS mutagenized fly lines in order to identify genes involved in cardiogenesis. In the present work, we have studied a group of alleles exhibiting a hypertrophic heart. Our analysis revealed that the ADAM protein (A Disintegrin And Metalloprotease) Kuzbanian, which is the functional homologue of the vertebrate ADAM10, is crucial for proper heart formation.

[Diagnosis and follow-up of vasculitis: usefulness of imaging].

Vasculitides are due to inflammation of the vessel wall. There is a definite advantage in visualizing the inflammatory process within blood vessels without resorting to invasive procedures. A variety of non-invasive imaging techniques is now becoming available to investigate patients with vasculitis.

The patellotrochlear index: a new index for assessing patellar height.

The radiological methods to determine patellar height described in the literature are variable, not reliable and depend on the chosen ratio. The purpose of this paper is to describe another method of measuring patellar height on sagittal MRI using the true articular cartilage patellotrochlear relationship. An analysis of magnetic resonance (MR) examinations of 66 consecutive patients was performed.

Anesthetic management of patients with ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency.

Ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency (OTCD) is the most common inborn error of the urea cycle. Several specific factors require care during anesthesia in patients with this condition to avoid metabolic decompensation with acute hyperammonemia and encephalopathy. We report monozygous twins with severe neonatal-onset OTCD undergoing general anesthesia twice each, with midazolam, s-ketamine, fentanyl and isoflurane in combination with surgical field infiltration with ropivacaine.

Dynamics of heart differentiation, visualized utilizing heart enhancer elements of the Drosophila melanogaster bHLH transcription factor Hand.

Drosophila melanogaster has become one of the important model systems to investigate the development and differentiation of the heart. After 24h after egg deposition (h AED), a simple tube-like organ is formed, consisting of essentially only two cell types, the contractile cardioblasts and non-myogenic pericardial cells. In contrast to the detailed knowledge of heart formation during embryogenesis, only a few studies deal with later changes in heart morphology and/or function.

Predictors of nonadherence to single-dose nevirapine therapy for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission.

Background: Adequate adherence is required for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (pMTCT) programs to be effective. We investigated predictors and extent of nonadherence to single-dose nevirapine.

Methods: Data on nevirapine intake and possible predictors were collected among 760 HIV-positive women with liveborn babies enrolled in a study in Lusaka, Zambia.

Identification of fungal sphingolipid C9-methyltransferases by phylogenetic profiling.

Fungal glucosylceramides play an important role in plant-pathogen interactions enabling plants to recognize the fungal attack and initiate specific defense responses. A prime structural feature distinguishing fungal glucosylceramides from those of plants and animals is a methyl group at the C9-position of the sphingoid base, the biosynthesis of which has never been investigated. Using information on the presence or absence of C9-methylated glucosylceramides in different fungal species, we developed a bioinformatics strategy to identify the gene responsible for the biosynthesis of this C9-methyl group.

A multi-center quality control study of different CA15-3 immunoassays.

A long-term multi-center quality control study of CA15-3 determinations based on measurements of liquid BIOREF CA15-3 control sera was conducted in 17 participating laboratories. Seven different CA15-3 assays were applied using the appropriate automatic immunoanalyzers. CA15-3 means were determined for BIOREF low, medium and high level control sera.

Reduction of postoperative lymphedema after oral tumor surgery with sodium selenite.

The objective of this double-blind, randomized study was to establish whether sodium selenite administered orally or intravenously reduces postoperative lymphedema after oral tumor surgery and to study the effect of sodium selenite on glutathione peroxidase (GPX) activity and oxygen radical production. Twenty patients were enrolled in the study. Each of the participants received 1,000 microg sodium selenite intravenously or orally daily for 3 wk during the pre-, intra-, and postoperative period.

Tissue factor and tumor: clinical and laboratory aspects.

This review summarizes data demonstrating the role of TF in tumor development, metastasis and angiogenesis. TF is a transmembrane protein that is expressed constitutively in some kinds of extravascular cells and transiently in intravascular cells after stimulation with cytokines and growth factors. Originally TF was considered to have a function in the initiation of coagulation.

[Patients with ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency. Anaesthesiological and intensive care management].

Ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency (OTCD) is the most common inborn urea cycle disorder. Patients with OTCD are at risk of acute metabolic decompensation with hyperammonemia and subsequent encephalopathy, coma and death. Symptoms may be triggered by infections, drugs and stress, evoked by trauma, pain, fear, surgery and anaesthesia or by episodes of protein catabolism, i.

Ligamentum flavum cysts causing incapacitating lumbar spinal stenosis.

Background: Cysts of the ligamentum flavum are rare and unusual causes of spinal compression.

Methods: We report our experience of four cases of ligamentum flavum cysts occurring in the lumbar spine and discuss some of the possible etiologies and pathophysiologic mechanisms according to the available literature.

Conclusion: This entity is clearly different from the synovial facet-joints or ganglion cysts.

Decreased duration of mechanical ventilation when comparing analgesia-based sedation using remifentanil with standard hypnotic-based sedation for up to 10 days in intensive care unit patients: a randomised trial [ISRCTN47583497].

Introduction: This randomised, open-label, multicentre study compared the safety and efficacy of an analgesia-based sedation regime using remifentanil with a conventional hypnotic-based sedation regime in critically ill patients requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation for up to 10 days.

Methods: One hundred and five randomised patients received either a remifentanil-based sedation regime (initial dose 6 to 9 microg kg(-1) h(-1) (0.1 to 0.

Hand hygiene behavior in a pediatric emergency department and a pediatric intensive care unit: comparison of use of 2 dispenser systems.

Background: Adherence to hand hygiene standards is poor. Approaches and systems to improve hand hygiene practices warrant testing.

Objective: To compare the frequency of use of manually operated and touch-free dispensers of sanitizer for hand hygiene.

Intraoperative low-dose S-ketamine has no preventive effects on postoperative pain and morphine consumption after major urological surgery in children.

Background: Clinical studies suggest low-dose ketamine may have preemptive effects on postoperative pain in adults. The objective of this study was to determine whether intraoperative low-dose S-ketamine reduces postoperative pain and morphine consumption in children undergoing major urological surgery.

Materials: Thirty children scheduled for major urological surgery were included in this prospective study.

Management of Rathke's cleft cysts.

Background: Incidental diagnosis of Rathke's cleft cysts (RCCs) has increased due to the improvements in imaging techniques; however, symptomatic cases are rare and accurate preoperative diagnosis can be difficult.

Methods: Files and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of 10 surgically treated patients with RCC and 8 conservatively managed cases with a suspected diagnosis were reviewed retrospectively. Clinical, radiological, and histological features as well as intraoperative findings were scrutinized.