Effects of comprehensive educational reforms on academic success in a diverse student body.

Context: Calls for medical curriculum reform and increased student diversity in the USA have seen mixed success: performance outcomes following curriculum revisions have been inconsistent and national matriculation of under-represented minority (URM) students has not met aspirations. Published innovations in curricula, academic support and pipeline programmes usually describe isolated interventions that fail to affect curriculum-level outcomes.

Methods: United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 performance and graduation rates were analysed for three classes of medical students before (matriculated 1995-1997, n=517) and after (matriculated 2003-2005, n=597) implementing broad-based reforms in our education system.

Cardiac preconditioning with local laser-induced hyperthermia.

Background: Whole body hyperthermia has been shown to be highly effective in preconditioning cardiac tissue against reperfusion injury. The current study was aimed to assess the ability of regional sublethal laser-induced hyperthermia to precondition cardiac tissue against ischemic-induced myocardial infarction.

Methods And Results: Diode laser radiation was used to locally heat (42 degrees C) the left ventricle by irradiating the epicardial surface of rat heart for 20 min.

Whole-body hyperthermia induces up-regulation of vascular endothelial growth factor accompanied by neovascularization in cardiac tissue.

Whole-body hyperthermia (WBH) promotes cardiac protection against ischemia/reperfusion injury, in part by up-regulation of heat shock proteins (HSP). Whether heat stress also promotes up-regulation of angiogenic factors or induces endothelial cell proliferation is unknown. We studied the effects of heat stress on up-regulation of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and growth of new blood vessels following WBH.

Sepsis-induced failure of hepatic energy metabolism.

Hypothesis: Recent evidence suggests that sepsis may induce an uncoupling of oxidative phosphorylation. The purpose of this study was to quantify temporal changes in hepatic oxygen consumption and cellular energy state with increasing severity of sepsis and thus assess the interrelationship of these parameters as either primary defect or compensatory response.

Main Outcome Measures: Pseudomonas aeruginosa was infused intravenously in eight instrumented anesthetized swine inducing a progressive severity of sepsis to shock.

Postischemic recovery of contractile function is impaired in SOD2(+/-) but not SOD1(+/-) mouse hearts.

Background: Reactive oxygen species (ROS) contribute to myocardial stunning. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) is a major defense mechanism against ROS. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the contributions of cytosolic (SOD1) and mitochondrial (SOD2) isoforms to protect against myocardial stunning.