Acoustic Features for the Identification of Coronary Artery Disease.

Goal: Earlier studies have documented that coronary artery disease (CAD) produces weak murmurs, which might be detected through analysis of heart sounds. An electronic stethoscope with a digital signal processing unit could be a low cost and easily applied method for diagnosis of CAD. The current study is a search for heart sound features which might identify CAD.

Partial oral treatment of endocarditis.

Background: Guidelines for the treatment of left-sided infective endocarditis (IE) recommend 4 to 6 weeks of intravenous antibiotics. Conversion from intravenous to oral antibiotics in clinically stabilized patients could reduce the side effects associated with intravenous treatment and shorten the length of hospital stay. Evidence supporting partial oral therapy as an alternative to the routinely recommended continued parenteral therapy is scarce, although observational data suggest that this strategy may be safe and effective.

Comparison of human adipose-derived stem cells and bone marrow-derived stem cells in a myocardial infarction model.

Treatment of myocardial infarction (MI) with bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells and recently also adipose-derived stem cells has shown promising results. In contrast to clinical trials and their use of autologous bone marrow-derived cells from the ischemic patient, the animal MI models are often using young donors and young, often immune-compromised, recipient animals. Our objective was to compare bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells with adipose-derived stem cells from an elderly ischemic patient in the treatment of MI using a fully grown non-immune-compromised rat model.

[Necrotising fasciitis in a patient infected by Streptococcus pneumoniae].

A 71 year-old male with interscapular pain was admitted on suspicion of an acute aortic dissection. The diagnosis was not supported by echocardiography or computed tomography (CT). Physical examination showed an erythematous area of the skin with crepitation between the scapulae, and the CT showed subcutaneous emphysema of the entire back region.

Synthetic matrix metalloproteinase inhibitors inhibit growth of established breast cancer osteolytic lesions and prolong survival in mice.

Purpose: Breast cancer frequently leads to incurable bone metastasis. Essential requirements for the development of bone metastasis are cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions, release of bioactive growth factors and cytokines, and removal of large amounts of bone matrix. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) play an important role in all of these processes, but the possibility of using synthetic MMP inhibitors to decrease bone metastasis has received little attention.