Levobupivacaine vs racemic bupivacaine in spinal anesthesia for sequential bilateral total knee arthroplasty: a retrospective cohort study.

Study Objectives: To compare the anesthetic potency and safety of spinal anesthesia with higher dosages of levobupivacaine and bupivacaine in patients for bilateral sequential for total knee arthroplasty (TKA).

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Operation theater with postoperative inpatient follow-up.

The beneficial effects of berries on cognition, motor behaviour and neuronal function in ageing.

Previously, it has been shown that strawberry (SB) or blueberry (BB) supplementations, when fed to rats from 19 to 21 months of age, reverse age-related decrements in motor and cognitive performance. We have postulated that these effects may be the result of a number of positive benefits of the berry polyphenols, including decreased stress signalling, increased neurogenesis, and increased signals involved in learning and memory. Thus, the present study was carried out to examine these mechanisms in aged animals by administering a control, 2 % SB- or 2 % BB-supplemented diet to aged Fischer 344 rats for 8 weeks to ascertain their effectiveness in reversing age-related deficits in behavioural and neuronal function.

Safety and toxicological evaluation of Meratrim®: an herbal formulation for weight management.

Meratrim is a unique dietary ingredient consisting of extracts from Sphaeranthus indicus flower heads and Garcinia mangostana fruit rind. Clinical studies have demonstrated that Meratrim is effective and well-tolerated in weight management. Herein we assessed the broad spectrum safety of Meratrim in a battery of in vitro and animal toxicological studies including a sub-chronic repeated-dose 13-week oral toxicity study to determine the no-observable-adverse-effect-level (NOAEL).

Undenatured type II collagen (UC-II®) for joint support: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in healthy volunteers.

Background: UC-II contains a patented form of undenatured type II collagen derived from chicken sternum. Previous preclinical and clinical studies support the safety and efficacy of UC-II in modulating joint discomfort in osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy and tolerability of UC-II in moderating joint function and joint pain due to strenuous exercise in healthy subjects.

An efficient and secure medical image protection scheme based on chaotic maps.

Recently, the increasing demand for telemedicine services has raised interest in the use of medical image protection technology. Conventional block ciphers are poorly suited to image protection due to the size of image data and increasing demand for real-time teleradiology and other online telehealth applications. To meet this challenge, this paper presents a novel chaos-based medical image encryption scheme.

Changes in gene expression in the rat hippocampus following exposure to 56Fe particles and protection by berry diets.

Exposing young rats to particles of high energy and charge, such as (56)Fe, enhances indices of oxidative stress and inflammation and disrupts behavior, including spatial learning and memory. In the present study, we examined whether gene expression in the hippocampus, an area of the brain important in memory, is affected by exposure to 1.5 Gy or 2.

Safety assessment of a calcium-potassium salt of (-)-hydroxycitric acid.

The safety of Garcinia cambogiaextract, its active ingredient (-)-hydroxycitric acid (HCA), and the marketed weight management formula, Super CitriMax(®) (HCA-SX), is supported by numerous in vitro and animal experimental studies as well as several clinical studies. HCA-SX has been shown to reduce appetite, inhibit fat synthesis, and decrease body weight. A series of toxicological tests including acute, short-term, and sub-chronic studies as well as teratogenicity/reproduction and genotoxicity studies were performed on HCA-SX.

Safety and toxicological evaluation of a novel chromium(III) dinicocysteinate complex.

Chromium(III) is an essential trace element required for normal protein, fat and carbohydrate metabolism. It also helps in energy production and increasing lean body mass. Chromium(III) dinicocysteinate (CDNC) is a unique form of bioavailable chromium(III).

Safety and toxicological evaluation of undenatured type II collagen.

Previous research has shown that undenatured type II collagen is effective in the treatment of arthritis. The present study evaluated the broad-spectrum safety of UC-II by a variety of toxicological assays including acute oral, acute dermal, primary dermal irritation, and primary eye irritation toxicity. In addition, genotoxicity studies such as Ames bacterial reverse mutation assay and mouse lymphoma tests, as well as a dose-dependent 90-day sub-chronic toxicity study were conducted.

Safety and efficacy of undenatured type II collagen in the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee: a clinical trial.

Previous studies have shown that undenatured type II collagen (UC-II) is effective in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, and preliminary human and animal trials have shown it to be effective in treating osteoarthritis (OA). The present clinical trial evaluated the safety and efficacy of UC-II as compared to a combination of glucosamine and chondroitin (G+C) in the treatment of OA of the knee. The results indicate that UC-II treatment was more efficacious resulting in a significant reduction in all assessments from the baseline at 90 days; whereas, this effect was not observed in G+C treatment group.

Nutrigenomic analysis of diet-gene interactions on functional supplements for weight management.

Recent advances in molecular biology combined with the wealth of information generated by the Human Genome Project have fostered the emergence of nutrigenomics, a new discipline in the field of nutritional research. Nutrigenomics may provide the strategies for the development of safe and effective dietary interventions against the obesity epidemic. According to the World Health Organization, more than 60% of the global disease burden will be attributed to chronic disorders associated with obesity by 2020.

Blueberry polyphenols attenuate kainic acid-induced decrements in cognition and alter inflammatory gene expression in rat hippocampus.

Cognitive impairment in age-related neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease may be partly due to long-term exposure and increased susceptibility to inflammatory insults. In the current study, we investigated whether polyphenols in blueberries can reduce the deleterious effects of inflammation induced by central administration of kainic acid by altering the expression of genes associated with inflammation. To this end, 4-month-old male Fischer-344 (F344) rats were fed a control, 0.

Nutrigenomic basis of beneficial effects of chromium(III) on obesity and diabetes.

Insulin resistance has been shown to be the major contributing factor to the metabolic syndrome, which comprises a cluster of risk factors for metabolic aberrations such as obesity, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and hyperglycemia. Additionally, insulin resistance has been associated with the occurrence of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Epidemiological studies indicate that obesity and diabetes have become alarmingly prevalent in recent years.

Berry fruit supplementation and the aging brain.

The onset of age-related neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease, superimposed on a declining nervous system, could exacerbate the motor and cognitive behavioral deficits that normally occur in senescence. In cases of severe deficits in memory or motor function, hospitalization and/or custodial care would be a likely outcome. This means that unless some way is found to reduce these age-related decrements in neuronal function, health-care costs will continue to rise exponentially.

Nutritional intervention in brain aging: reducing the effects of inflammation and oxidative stress.

It is estimated that by the year 2050 the elderly (aged 65 or older) population will double the population of children (aged 0-14) for the first time in history. The expansion of the elderly population has already taken a toll on health care systems. In order to alleviate the health care costs and increase the quality of living in the aging population, it is crucial to explore methods that may retard or reverse the deleterious effects of aging.

Fruit polyphenols and their effects on neuronal signaling and behavior in senescence.

The onset of age-related neurodegenerative diseases superimposed on a declining nervous system could exacerbate the motor and cognitive behavioral deficits that normally occur in senescence. It is likely that, in cases of severe deficits in memory or motor function, hospitalization and/or custodial care would be a likely outcome. This means that unless some way is found to reduce these age-related decrements in neuronal function, healthcare costs will continue to rise exponentially.

Inhibitory effects of blueberry extract on the production of inflammatory mediators in lipopolysaccharide-activated BV2 microglia.

Sustained microglial activation in the central nervous system (CNS) has been extensively investigated in age-related neurodegenerative diseases and has been postulated to lead to neuronal cell loss in these conditions. Recent studies have shown that antiinflammatory drugs may suppress microglial activation and thus protect against microglial overactivation and subsequent cell loss. Research also suggests that fruits such as berries may contain both antioxidant and antiinflammatory polyphenols that may be important in this regard.

Scale-free user-network approach to telephone network traffic analysis.

The effect of the user network on the telephone network traffic is studied in this paper. Unlike classical traffic analysis, where users are assumed to be connected uniformly, our proposed method employs a scale-free network to model the behavior of telephone users. Each user has a fixed set of acquaintances with whom the user may communicate, and the number of acquaintances follows a power-law distribution.

The beneficial effects of fruit polyphenols on brain aging.

Brain aging is characterized by the continual concession to battle against insults accumulated over the years. One of the major insults is oxidative stress, which is the inability to balance and to defend against the cellular generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). These ROS cause oxidative damage to nucleic acid, carbohydrate, protein, and lipids.

Postnatal apoptosis in cerebellar granule cells of homozygous leaner (tg1a/tg1a) mice.

Leaner mice carry a homozygous, autosomal recessive mutation in the mouse CACNA1A gene encoding the Alpha1A subunit of P/Q-type calcium channels, which results in an out-of-frame splicing event in the carboxy terminus of the Alpha1A protein. Leaner mice exhibit severe ataxia, paroxysmal dyskinesia and absence seizures. Functional studies have revealed a marked decrease in calcium currents through leaner P/Q-type channels and altered neuronal calcium ion homeostasis in cerebellar Purkinje cells.

Blueberry supplemented diet: effects on object recognition memory and nuclear factor-kappa B levels in aged rats.

It has been reported that an antioxidant-rich, blueberry-supplemented rat diet may retard brain aging in the rat. The present study determined whether such supplementation could prevent impaired object recognition memory and elevated levels of the oxidative stress-responsive protein, nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kappaB) in aged Fischer-344 rats. Twelve aged rats had been fed a 2% blueberry supplemented diet for 4 months prior to testing.