Fat content of hip muscles: an anteroposterior gradient.

Background: Despite the importance of the hip muscles in protecting against hip fracture and in the outcome of hip arthroplasty, the variability in their fat content has not been previously studied. Our objectives were to evaluate the variability in the fat content of the hip muscles in a population without myopathy or a need for hip surgery with the use of computed tomography (CT), to study the relationship between hip muscle fat content and physical performance, and to identify medical conditions and lifestyle habits associated with an increase in hip muscle fat content.

Methods: Ten normal subjects without a relevant medical history and ninety-nine consecutive nonsurgical patients without myopathy (age, twenty-one to ninety-four years) underwent a nonenhanced CT scan of the pelvis.

Sequential-design, multicenter, randomized, controlled trial of early decompressive craniectomy in malignant middle cerebral artery infarction (DECIMAL Trial).

Background And Purpose: There is no effective medical treatment of malignant middle cerebral artery (MCA) infarction. The purpose of this clinical trial was to assess the efficacy of early decompressive craniectomy in patients with malignant MCA infarction.

Methods: We conducted in France a multicenter, randomized trial involving patients between 18 and 55 years of age with malignant MCA infarction to compare functional outcomes with or without decompressive craniectomy.

Adrenal response in patients with septic shock of abdominal origin: relationship to survival.

Objective: To evaluate the prognostic value of adrenocortical response to corticotropin in septic shock patients operated on exclusively for an intra-abdominal source of infection.

Design And Setting: Prospective, observational, single-center study in a surgical intensive care unit of a university hospital

Patients: 118 consecutive septic shock patients undergoing laparotomy or drainage for intra-abdominal infection.

Measurements And Results: Baseline cortisol (t (0)) and cortisol response to corticotropin test (Delta) were measured during the first 24 h following onset of shock.

Abciximab in primary coronary stenting of ST-elevation myocardial infarction: a European meta-analysis on individual patients' data with long-term follow-up.

Aims: Varying results have been reported in studies evaluating glycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa inhibition in primary coronary stenting of acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), usually with limited clinical follow-up. We performed a meta-analysis on case specific data of primary stenting in STEMI with a long-term evaluation.

Methods And Results: For this meta-analysis, studies of rescue percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) after failed lytic therapy, plain balloon angioplasty studies and studies with an angiographic selection of patients were excluded.

Blood pressure and haemoglobin A1c are associated with microhaemorrhage in CADASIL: a two-centre cohort study.

Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leucoencephalopathy (CADASIL) is a hereditary arteriopathy caused by mutations of the Notch3 gene. The risk factors for cerebral microhaemorrhages (CM), their relationship to other MRI lesions in the disease and their potential clinical impact have not been previously defined. Our purpose was to examine the frequency, number and location of microhaemorrhages in a multicentre cohort study, defining predisposing factors and associated radiographic markers in CADASIL patients.