Impact of body mass index in liver transplantation for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and alcoholic liver disease.

Background: This study evaluates long-term outcomes and body mass index (BMI) following liver transplantation (LT) for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in comparison with alcoholic liver disease (ALD).

Methods: Patient and graft survival were compared using Kaplan Meier curves and log rank test. Multivariable analysis of recipient and donor characteristics was performed as determinants of patient survival.

Challenges and advances in optimizing liver allografts from donation after circulatory death donors.

In recent years, there has been a shift in the donor demographics with an increase in donation after circulatory death (DCD). Livers obtained from DCD donors are known to have poorer outcomes when compared to donors after brainstem death and currently only a small proportion of DCD livers are used. This review outlines the recent technological developments in liver DCD donation, including clinical studies using normothermic regional perfusion and extracorporal machine perfusion of livers from DCD donors.

Sildenafil citrate for the prevention of high altitude hypoxic pulmonary hypertension: double blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial.

Exaggerated hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction is a key factor in the development of high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE). Due to its effectiveness as a pulmonary vasodilator, sildenafil has been proposed as a prophylactic agent against HAPE. By conducting a parallel-group double blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, we investigated the effect of chronic sildenafil administration on pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP) and symptoms of acute mountain sickness (AMS) during acclimatization to high altitude.

Incidence and predictors of acute mountain sickness among trekkers on Mount Kilimanjaro.

We investigated the incidence of AMS amongst a general population of trekkers on Mount Kilimanjaro, using the Lake Louise consensus scoring system (LLS). Additionally we examined the effect of prophylactic acetazolamide and different ascent profiles. Climbers on 3 different ascent itineraries were recruited.

Mortality on Mount Everest, 1921-2006: descriptive study.

Objective: To examine patterns of mortality among climbers on Mount Everest over an 86 year period.

Design: Descriptive study.

Setting: Climbing expeditions to Mount Everest, 1921-2006.

Abnormal sympathoadrenal development and systemic hypotension in PHD3-/- mice.

Cell culture studies have implicated the oxygen-sensitive hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) prolyl hydroxylase PHD3 in the regulation of neuronal apoptosis. To better understand this function in vivo, we have created PHD3(-/-) mice and analyzed the neuronal phenotype. Reduced apoptosis in superior cervical ganglion (SCG) neurons cultured from PHD3(-/-) mice is associated with an increase in the number of cells in the SCG, as well as in the adrenal medulla and carotid body.