Introduction: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a lung condition characterized by chronic respiratory symptoms (breathlessness, cough, and expectoration). In the advanced stages, patients often report to the Accident & Emergency department due to worsening of symptoms. Because of the repeated exposure to corticosteroids during the management of exacerbations, these patients are susceptible to super additional infections.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLife and Death 2: The Brain was the first computerized neurosurgical simulator. It was developed as a commercial video game for a general audience. Despite this, it contains many valuable lessons for the simulation and education of nontechnical skills as well as being a historical landmark in the field of neurosurgery and medical simulation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma, has a high death rate, but an early diagnosis can substantially reduce this risk. In the current era, prediction models face challenges such as low accuracy, excessive noise, and low contrast. To resolve these problems, an advanced lung carcinoma prediction and risk screening model using transfer learning is proposed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe shortage of organs for heart transplantation has created a need to explore the use of extended-criteria organs. We report the preliminary use of normothermic TransMedics Organ Care System-an ex vivo approach to preserve extended-criteria brain-dead donor hearts. This System maintains a normal temperature, provides continuous perfusion and oxygenation, reduces ischemic time, and enables additional viability assessment options.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHypokalemic periodic paralysis (HPP) is an uncommon condition resulting from channelopathy, impacting skeletal muscles. It is distinguished by episodes of sudden and temporary muscle weakness alongside low potassium levels. The normalization of potassium resolves the associated paralysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe time scales of long-time atomistic molecular dynamics simulations are typically reported in microseconds, while the time scales for experiments studying the kinetics of amyloid fibril formation are typically reported in minutes or hours. This time scale deficit of roughly 9 orders of magnitude presents a major challenge in the design of computer simulation methods for studying protein aggregation events. Coarse-grained molecular simulations offer a computationally tractable path forward for exploring the molecular mechanism driving the formation of these structures, which are implicated in diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and type-II diabetes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo study the clinico-etiological profile of children with thrombocytopeniaMethods: This prospective hospital-based study included all children (<18 years) with thrombocytopenia at the time of hospitalization and/or thrombocytopenia during the course of their hospital stay. A detailed history was recorded and appropriate laboratory investigations were carried out Results: The study group comprised 246 children (mean age, 9.29 years; median age, 10 years) with male to female ratio of 1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Using texture features derived from contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) combined with general imaging features as well as clinical information to predict treatment response and survival in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who received transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) treatment.
Methods: From January 2014 to November 2022, 289 patients with HCC who underwent TACE were retrospectively reviewed. Their clinical information was documented.
The AtriClip device enables the safe and reproducible epicardial clipping of the left atrial appendage. Transapical off-pump beating heart mitral valve repair using NeoChord DS100 Artificial Chordae Delivery System has matured and become more standardized. We aim to evaluate the feasibility of combining NeoChord repair and left atrial appendage exclusion in a single procedure through the same minithoracotomy in patients with mitral valve prolapse and atrial fibrillation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Total arch replacement with the frozen elephant trunk (FET) procedure has changed the landscape of therapy for aortic arch diseases. The optimal landing zone for a FET is controversial. We sought to share our early and midterm results of the FET procedure as well as compare the clinical outcomes of proximal and distal FET anastomosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFActa Crystallogr F Struct Biol Commun
July 2022
The unintended crystallization of proteins which generally originate from the expression host instead of the target recombinant proteins is periodically reported. Despite the massive technological advances in the field, assigning a structural model to the corresponding diffraction data is not a trivial task. Here, the structure of acyl-carrier protein synthase (AcpS) from Mycobacterium smegmatis (msAcpS), which crystallized inadvertently in an experimental setup to grow crystals of a Mycobacterium tuberculosis protein using M.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Stroke remains one of the most important complications of cardiac surgery and occurs in 2.2% after open-heart procedure. It is associated with significant morbidity and mortality.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFResident tissue macrophages (RTMs) develop from distinct waves of embryonic progenitor cells that seed tissues before birth. Tissue-specific signals drive a differentiation program that leads to the functional specialization of RTM subsets. Genetic programs that regulate the development of RTMs are incompletely understood, as are the mechanisms that enable their maintenance in adulthood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAsian Cardiovasc Thorac Ann
September 2022
A 71-year-old lady with dextrocardia and pure aortic regurgitation was treated with transcatheter aortic valve replacement using the transapical J-valve system. Good clinical and echocardiographic results were demonstrated at one-year follow-up. Herewith we describe this simple, safe, and a minimally invasive aortic valve replacement option for this condition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on older adults residing in skilled nursing facilities. This study examined the pathways through which community and facility factors may have affected COVID-19 cases and deaths in skilled nursing facilities.
Methods: We used structural equation modeling to examine the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in skilled nursing facilities in Cook County, Illinois, from January 1 through September 30, 2020.
Transmembrane 29 () gene with unknown function is a gene located on the X chromosome of the mouse genome. The gene showed differential expression in the Vannucci neonatal hypoxic-ischemic mouse brain model. We found the gene expresses with different molecular forms, including a group of long non-coding RNA forming a family of transcripts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Left ventricular assist device (LVAD) has been increasingly used in patients with advanced heart failure. This study aimed to assess the impact of implementation of LVAD therapy on heart transplantation (HTx) service in Hong Kong (HK).
Methods: LVAD program was started in 2010 in HK and patients who had been put on HTx waiting list since the start of HTx program in HK from 1992 to 2020 were included for analysis.
Folia Med (Plovdiv)
February 2021
Introduction: Bitter tasting of drugs leads to non-compliance especially in the case of pediatric patients due to their inability to swal-low medication.
Aim: In this study, we aimed to mask the bitter taste of acetaminophen (APAP) particles through coating.
Materials And Methods: A pH independent water insoluble ethylcellulose polymer was used to coat the APAP.
Purpose: To study the effectiveness of part-time occlusion (PTO) in different types of amblyopia in Indian population.
Methods: Prospective case series of consecutive cases of amblyopia from a tertiary care center were subjected to PTO of the better eye and monitored periodically for 6 months. Those who failed to improve by 6 months were shifted to full-time occlusion of the better eye and followed for a further 3 months.