Corticosteroid Use for Acute Respiratory Tract Infections in Direct-to-Consumer Telemedicine.

Background: Systemic corticosteroids are not indicated for acute respiratory tract infections yet are nonetheless prescribed in outpatient care. Acute respiratory tract infections are the most common diagnosis in direct-to-consumer telemedicine. The objective of this study was to characterize use of corticosteroids for acute respiratory tract infections in this setting and to assess the association between corticosteroid receipt and patient satisfaction.

Short-Term Systemic Corticosteroids: Appropriate Use in Primary Care.

Short-term systemic corticosteroids, also known as steroids, are frequently prescribed for adults in the outpatient setting by primary care physicians. There is a lack of supporting evidence for most diagnoses for which steroids are prescribed, and there is evidence against steroid use for patients with acute bronchitis, acute sinusitis, carpal tunnel, and allergic rhinitis. There is insufficient evidence supporting routine use of steroids for patients with acute pharyngitis, lumbar radiculopathy, carpal tunnel, and herpes zoster.

High Frequency of Systemic Corticosteroid Use for Acute Respiratory Tract Illnesses in Ambulatory Settings.

This study examines the frequency of steroid use for acute respiratory tract infections in Louisiana and nationally, and factors associated with this clinical practice.

Ratio measures in leading medical journals: structured review of accessibility of underlying absolute risks.

Objective: To examine the accessibility of absolute risk in articles reporting ratio measures in leading medical journals.

Design: Structured review of abstracts presenting ratio measures.

Setting: Articles published between 1 June 2003 and 1 May 2004 in Annals of Internal Medicine, BMJ, Journal of the American Medical Association, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Lancet, and New England Journal of Medicine.

Human pulmonary valve endothelial cells express functional adhesion molecules for leukocytes.

Background And Aim Of The Study: Histopathological studies of rejected orthotopic heart transplants suggest that cardiac valve endothelium is spared the inflammatory cell infiltration and tissue damage that occurs in the myocardium. To test whether this apparent protection from leukocyte invasion might be an inherent feature of the valve endothelium, leukocyte adhesion molecule expression and function were analyzed in human pulmonary valve endothelial cells (HPVEC). Use of cultured HPVEC allowed delineation of the potential contribution of functional adhesion molecules from the contribution of hemodynamic forces exerted on the leaflet surface in vivo

Methods And Results: HPVEC express E-selectin, ICAM-1, and VCAM-1 in response to the inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) similarly to other types of cultured human endothelial cells.

Quantitative evaluation of endothelial progenitors and cardiac valve endothelial cells: proliferation and differentiation on poly-glycolic acid/poly-4-hydroxybutyrate scaffold in response to vascular endothelial growth factor and transforming growth factor beta1.

Three-dimensional scaffolds made of bioabsorbable polymeric constituents are currently being tested for use in tissue engineering of various tissues. A composite scaffold of poly-glycolic acid (PGA) non-woven mesh dip-coated in a 1% solution of poly-4-hydroxybutyrate (P4HB) was shown to be suitable as a scaffold for creation of tissue-engineered trileaflet pulmonic valve replacements in sheep [Hoerstrup, S.P.

AC133-2, a novel isoform of human AC133 stem cell antigen.

Human AC133 antigen, also called CD133, was recently identified as a hematopoietic stem cell marker. However, the molecular structure and function of this protein has remained unclear. Here we cloned and identified a novel isoform of AC133, which we named AC133-2.