Left ventricular outflow tract and mid-cavity obstruction may cause false-positive dobutamine stress echocardiograms.

Left ventricular (LV) outflow tract obstruction (LVOTO) occurs in up to 20% of patients undergoing dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE). Mid-cavity LV obstruction occurs less commonly during DSE. LV regional wall motion abnormalities during DSE may occur despite normal coronaries due to hypertensive blood pressure response and takotsubo stress cardiomyopathy.

Bioabsorbable coronary stents--are these the next big thing in coronary angioplasty?

The role of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in the treatment of coronary artery disease has grown at an astronomical pace. Drug eluting stents (DES) offer advantages over bare metal stents (BMS) such as reduction in early in-stent restenosis rates. However, they have disadvantages like from increased late stent thrombosis when compared with BMS.

A broadly conserved pathway generates 3'UTR-directed primary piRNAs.

Background: Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) are approximately 24-30 nucleotide regulatory RNAs that are abundant in animal gonads and early embryos. The best-characterized piRNAs mediate a conserved pathway that restricts transposable elements, and these frequently engage a "ping-pong" amplification loop. Certain stages of mammalian testis also accumulate abundant piRNAs of unknown function, which derive from noncoding RNAs that are depleted in transposable element content and do not engage in ping-pong.

A case of aneurysm of left anterior descending artery rupturing into right ventricular outflow tract presenting as acute anterior MI secondary to Behcet's syndrome.

A case of Aneurysm of Left Anterior Descending that has ruptured into Right Ventricular Outflow Tract and presenting as acute anterior MI was successfully treated with aneurysmal resection and coronary artery bypass surgery. Possible aetiology is discussed.

Minimotif miner 2nd release: a database and web system for motif search.

Minimotif Miner (MnM) consists of a minimotif database and a web-based application that enables prediction of motif-based functions in user-supplied protein queries. We have revised MnM by expanding the database more than 10-fold to approximately 5000 motifs and standardized the motif function definitions. The web-application user interface has been redeveloped with new features including improved navigation, screencast-driven help, support for alias names and expanded SNP analysis.

Two distinct mechanisms generate endogenous siRNAs from bidirectional transcription in Drosophila melanogaster.

Cis-natural antisense transcripts (cis-NATs) have been speculated to be substrates for endogenous RNA interference (RNAi), but little experimental evidence for such a pathway in animals has been reported. Analysis of massive Drosophila melanogaster small RNA data sets now reveals two mechanisms that yield endogenous small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) via bidirectional transcription. First, >100 cis-NATs with overlapping 3' exons generate 21-nt, and, based on previously published small RNA data [corrected] Dicer-2 (Dcr-2)-dependent, 3'-end modified siRNAs.

Prospective cohort study of HIV post-exposure prophylaxis for sexual assault survivors.

Background: There is a lack of standardized programs for HIV counselling and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) in the setting of sexual assault.

Methods: We conducted an 18-month prospective cohort study assessing universal HIV counselling for all sexual assault survivors presenting to 18 Ontario Sexual Assault Treatment Centres. HIV PEP was universally offered to those at risk of HIV infection (high risk or unknown risk) presenting < or =72 h after the assault, using Combivir one pill and Kaletra three capsules twice a day for 28 days.

Bioequivalence evaluation of 320 mg gemifloxacin tablets in healthy volunteers.

This study was done to compare the bioavailability of a new tablet formulation of gemifloxacin (gemifloxacin 320 mg/tablet) with that of the reference product (factive 320 mg/tablet). The bioequivalence of a single dose (320 mg) was assessed for gemifloxacin included in the test and reference products by comparing the pharmacokinetic parameters derived from the plasma concentration-time profiles following administration to 24 healthy male volunteers in a balanced, 2-period, 2-sequence, 2-way crossover design. Plasma concentrations of gemifloxacin were analyzed by a validated and sensitive HPLC assay developed in-house.

Fast and practical algorithms for planted (l, d) motif search.

We consider the planted (l, d) motif search problem, which consists of finding a substring of length l that occurs in a set of input sequences {s1, . . .

An efficient algorithm for minimum degeneracy primer selection.

Selecting degenerate primers for multiplex polymerase chain reaction (MP-PCR) experiments, called the degenerate primer design problem (DPDP), is an important problem in computational molecular biology and has drawn the attention of numerous researchers in the recent past. Several variants of DPDP were formulated by Linhart and Shamir and proven to be NP-complete. A number of algorithms have been proposed for one such variant, namely, the maximum coverage degenerate primer design problem (MC-DPDP).

The daily center care on impact of family burden.

Estimations indicate that a member of the family defined as caregiver nurses 80% of the patients affected by dementia in Italy at home. The term care giving refers to activities and experiences able to provide help and assistance to relatives or friends who are unable to live on their own. The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of day-care center for patients affected by dementia and behavioral symptoms on burden perceived by caregiver.

Minimotif Miner: a tool for investigating protein function.

In addition to large domains, many short motifs mediate functional post-translational modification of proteins as well as protein-protein interactions and protein trafficking functions. We have constructed a motif database comprising 312 unique motifs and a web-based tool for identifying motifs in proteins. Functional motifs predicted by MnM can be ranked by several approaches, and we validated these scores by analyzing thousands of confirmed examples and by confirming prediction of previously unidentified 14-3-3 motifs in EFF-1.

High-performance exact algorithms for motif search.

Objective: The human genome project has resulted in the generation of voluminous biological data. Novel computational techniques are called for to extract useful information from this data. One such technique is that of finding patterns that are repeated over many sequences (and possibly over many species).

Exact algorithms for planted motif problems.

The problem of identifying meaningful patterns (i.e., motifs) from biological data has been studied extensively due to its paramount importance.

Comparative bioavailability study of cefixime (equivalent to 100 mg/5 ml) suspension (Winex vs Suprax) in healthy male volunteers.

This investigation was carried out to evaluate the bioavailability of a new suspension formulation of cefixime (100 mg/5 ml), Winex, relative to the reference product, Suprax (100 mg/5 ml) suspension. The bio-availability study was carried out in 24 healthy male volunteers who received a single oral dose (200 mg) of the test (A) and the reference (B) products on 2 treatment days after an overnight fast of at least 10 hours. The treatment periods were separated by a one-week washout period.

Comparative bioavailability study of doxycycline hyclate (equivalent to 100 mg doxycycline) capsules (doxycin vs vibramycin) for bioequivalence evaluation in healthy adult volunteers.

This investigation was carried out to evaluate the bioavailability of a new capsule formulation of doxycycline (100 mg), doxycin, relative to the reference product, vibramycin (100 mg) capsules. The bioavailability was carried out in 24 healthy male volunteers who received a single dose (100 mg) of the test (A) and the reference (B) products after an overnight fast of at least 10 hours on 2 treatment days. The treatment periods were separated by a 2-week washout period.

Prevalence of systemic lupus erythematosus in central Saudi Arabia.

Objective: Although systemic lupus erythematosus of varying severity has been seen in our clinics, there is no information regarding the prevalence of the disease among Saudi nationals. We conducted this study to determine the prevalence of systemic lupus erythematosus in Al-Qaseem region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Methods: A community survey of towns and villages in the Al-Qaseem area of central Saudi Arabia was conducted in 3 phases to determine the prevalence of systemic lupus erythematosus in the region.

Markets, governments, and HMO development in the 1990s.

This article examines the impact of population demographics, health market characteristics, and government purchasing and regulation on the development of the HMO industry in the 1990s. I focus on two facets of development-HMO market share and the number of HMOs in operation in metropolitan areas. My central findings are threefold: Population size is a critical determinant of development.

Interleukin-10 (IL-10) secretion in systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis: IL-10-dependent CD4+CD45RO+ T cell-B cell antibody synthesis.

Interleukin-10 (IL-10) is a major immunoregulatory cytokine and has a multitude of immunomodulatory effects in the immune system. In this study, we have examined the secretion and in vitro function of IL-10 in B cell hyperactivity in antibody production in two common autoimmune diseases, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). IL-10 was detectable in serum of all active SLE and serum and synovial fluid samples of all RA patients but in none of the normal controls.

Prevalence of primary headache syndrome in adults in the Qassim region of Saudi Arabia.

Background And Purpose: Headache occurs worldwide, but documentation on the burden of headache in Saudi communities is quite limited. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of primary headache in a rural community in the Qassim region of Saudi Arabia.

Methods: A door-to-door survey of subjects older than 15 years of age was used for completion of a structured questionnaire to determine headache types based on defined criteria.

CD4+ T cell inducible immunoregulatory cytokine response in rheumatoid arthritis.

Objective: Monocytes and CD4+/CD8+ T cells produce immunoregulatory cytokines that participate in the pathogenesis of various immune disorders. We investigated the secretion of Th1-Th2 cell response cytokine production of CD4+/CD8+ T cells from the synovial fluid (SF) and blood of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: Blood and SF purified monocytes, CD4+ and CD8+ T cells were stimulated with bacterial lipopolysaccharides or anti-CD3 antibody, and secretion of various cytokines was determined by bioassay or ELISA:

Results: Monocytes from SF and blood of patients with RA produced highly elevated levels of interleukin-1 alpha (IL-1 alpha), IL-6, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), and granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor (GMCSF), the leading mediators of inflammation.