Cervical Artery Dissections and Ischemic Strokes Associated with Vascular Neck Compression Techniques (Sportive Chokes).

Background: Strangulation as a fight-finishing maneuver in combat sports, termed "choking" in that context, occurs worldwide millions of times yearly. This activity can be trained safely, but devastating injuries can occur.

Objective: Our aim was to present a case series of cervical artery dissections and ischemic strokes associated with sportive choking.

The force-temperature relationship in healthy and dystrophic mouse diaphragm; implications for translational study design.

In the field of muscular dystrophy, striated muscle function is often assessed in vitro in dystrophin-deficient mdx mice in order to test the impact of a potential treatment strategy. Although many past studies have assessed diaphragm contractile function at or near room temperature, the diaphragm performs in vivo at 37°C. To improve translation of bench-top results to possible clinical application, we studied temperature-dependence of contractile performance in wild-type (C57BL/10) and mdx muscle strips at temperatures from 25°C to 37°C.

Early treatment with lisinopril and spironolactone preserves cardiac and skeletal muscle in Duchenne muscular dystrophy mice.

Background: Nearly universal cardiomyopathy in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) contributes to heart failure and death. Because DMD patients show myocardial fibrosis well before functional impairment, we postulated that earlier treatment using drugs with antifibrotic effect may be beneficial.

Methods And Results: Three groups of 10 utrn(+/-);mdx, or "het" mice, deficient for dystrophin and haploinsufficient for utrophin with skeletal myopathy and cardiomyopathy that closely mimics clinical DMD were studied.

An ancient nova shell around the dwarf nova Z Camelopardalis.

Cataclysmic variables (classical novae and dwarf novae) are binary star systems in which a red dwarf transfers hydrogen-rich matter, by way of an accretion disk, to its white dwarf companion. In dwarf novae, an instability is believed to episodically dump much of the accretion disk onto the white dwarf. The liberation of gravitational potential energy then brightens these systems by up to 100-fold every few weeks or months.

A laboratory-based study to assess the performance of surgical gloves.

The inherent tear resistance and elasticity of latex and the touch sensitivity it provides has made it the traditional material of choice for surgical gloves, protecting both health care workers and patients from the transmission of bloodborne infections. Although increased incidence of latex allergy has led to increased use of nonlatex surgical gloves, the effectiveness of these gloves as a barrier to infection has not been examined thoroughly. This laboratory-based study compared the performance of latex and nonlatex surgical gloves in a simulated stress protocol.

Performance of latex and nonlatex medical examination gloves during simulated use.

Background: In response to the rise in latex allergies, gloves made from a variety of nonlatex materials have been introduced into the health care environment. To date, at least 1 study, by Rego and Roley (1999), has reported that both latex and nitrile medical examination gloves provide comparable barrier protective qualities. The purpose of our study was to determine the effects of glove stress, type of material (vinyl, nitrile, copolymer, latex), and manufacturer on the barrier effectiveness of medical examination gloves.