Coronary artery bypass grafts to chronic occluded right coronary arteries.

Background: The benefit of revascularizing chronically occluded coronary arteries remains debatable, and available long-term outcome reports are sparse. Current guidelines recommend revascularization of chronically occluded arteries only in patients with myocardial ischemia and/or symptoms associated with angina. We investigated outcome of patients with total chronic occlusion of the right coronary artery (RCA) receiving coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery with and without revascularization of the RCA.

A single vaccination with an inactivated bovine respiratory syncytial virus vaccine primes the cellular immune response in calves with maternal antibody.

Background: The efficacy of a single dose of an inactivated bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV)--Parainfluenaza type 3 (PI3)--Mannheimia haemolytica (Mh) combination vaccine, in calves positive for maternal antibodies, was established in a BRSV infection study.

Results: As expected the single vaccination did not have any effect on the decline of BRSV-specific neutralising or ELISA antibody. The cellular immune system was however primed by the vaccination.

Blockade of CD40-CD154 at the time of donor-specific blood transfusion does not lead to prolonged kidney allograft survival in nonhuman primates.

Background: In rodents it has been demonstrated that blockade of the CD40-CD154 (CD40L) pathway at the time of donor-specific blood transfusion (DST) can result in indefinite graft survival. Because it has been reported in the past that DST in monkeys can have a favorable effect on graft outcome and that blockade of the CD40-CD154 pathway can lead to prolonged kidney graft survival in monkeys, we have combined anti-CD154 treatment with DST in a monkey kidney graft model. The aim of this study was to investigate the immunosuppressive potential of blocking the CD40-CD154 interaction at the time of a DST in rhesus monkeys.