A novel mediator-polymer-modified anode for microbial fuel cells.

A high-performance anode system based on a combination of mediator-polymer-modified graphite felt and bacteria capable of reducing extracellular materials shows significant potential for practical use in microbial fuel cells (MFCs).

Serum lipoprotein(a) level and clinical coronary stenosis progression in patients with myocardial infarction: re-revascularization rate is high in patients with high-Lp(a).

Background: High serum lipoprotein(a) (Lp(a)) levels are associated with coronary artery disease.

Methods And Results: The serum Lp(a) levels of 130 patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) who underwent direct percutaneous coronary intervention were investigated. On the basis of Lp(a) level at 1 month after the onset of AMI, the patients were classified into 2 groups (high-Lp(a) (> or =30 mg/dl) and low-Lp(a) (< 30 mg/dl)) for evaluation of the clinical coronary stenosis progression (CCSP) rate.

Isolated left coronary ostial stenosis as the sole arterial involvement in Takayasu's disease.

A 24-year-old woman with Takayasu's disease developed unstable angina pectoris. Angiographic studies demonstrated an isolated left coronary ostial stenosis without any other systemic arterial involvement. She is unique in that the coronary lesion, which is rarely the major manifestation of Takayasu's disease, is the sole arterial involvement of the disease.

[A case of ventricular septal defect associated with active infective endocarditis which was successfully treated by triple valve replacement and ventricular septal defect patch closure].

A 47-year-old man was hospitalized in May, 1990, because of breathlessness and continuous fever which appeared about 4 weeks after he had had his periodontic tooth removed in December, 1989. He had been diagnosed as having ventricular septal defect (VSD) at the age of 6 years. When he was hospitalized, he was in a condition of class IV by NYHA classification, with a white blood cell count of 17,300/mm3, an increase in CRP, a red blood cell sedimentation rate of 108 mm/hr, and positive alpha-streptococcus in blood culture.