Baicalin attenuates air embolism-induced acute lung injury in rat isolated lungs.

Background And Purpose: Baicalin has been reported to have anti-inflammatory effects and protect against various tissue injuries. However, the effect of baicalin on air embolism-induced acute lung injury has not been tested yet.

Experimental Approach: Acute lung injury was induced by infusion of air at a rate of 0.

Oxidative stress and erythropoietin response in altitude exposure.

Purpose: Oxidative stress and erythropoietin (EPO) levels are increased following high altitude exposure. We hypothesized that the altitude-oxidative stress and EPO response would be associated with the presence or absence of acute mountain sickness (AMS) in subjects exposed at high altitude.

Methods: The study enrolled 29 healthy volunteers exposed at altitudes without strenuous physical exercise.

Intravascular FC-77 attenuates phorbol myristate acetate-induced acute lung injury in isolated rat lungs.

Objective: To evaluate whether intravascular Fluorinert (FC-77) attenuates phorbol myristate acetate (PMA)-induced acute lung injury in rats.

Design: Randomized, controlled animal study.

Setting: Animal care facility procedure room in a medical center.

JNK signaling pathway is required for bFGF-mediated surface cadherin downregulation on HUVEC.

Angiogenesis, the process of new blood vessel formation, is important in wound healing, inflammation, tumorigenesis and metastases. During this process, it is a critical step of the loosening of cellular interactions between endothelial cells, which are dependent on the architecture of adherens junction constructed by homophilic interactions of cell surface cadherins. Several studies suggested that the dynamic changes of cadherins are necessary during angiogenesis.

Hemorrhage from an enlarged emphysematous bulla during commercial air travel.

Pulmonary bullae are a common late complication in patients with emphysema. Non-communicating emphysematous bullae may expand during air travel when the ambient pressure is reduced, resulting in various forms of barotrauma including pneumothorax and air embolism. We report a 62-yr-old man with emphysema who developed hemoptysis during international commercial air travel.

L-Arginine prevents air embolism-induced acute lung injury in rats.

Objective: Pulmonary air embolism, causing vessel obstruction and primary or secondary reactions of blood, can lead to acute lung injury. In addition, nitric oxide has been known to play a key role in various causes of lung injury. In this study we employed the isolated rat lung model to investigate the effects of l-arginine on air embolism-induced lung injury.

Evaluation of risk factors for asthma in Taipei City.

Background: Asthma has rarely been studied by evaluating all of its trigger factors in 1 study population. Thus, correlations between the concentration of allergen immunoglobulin (Ig) E antibodies and airway limitation or asthma severity remain unclear.

Methods: Five hundred and seventy-nine asthmatic patients were enrolled, and serum specific IgE antibodies to allergens were analyzed.

Association of in vitro oxidative stress, serum ferritin concentration and C-reactive protein in febrile emergency room patients.

Background: Both C-reactive protein (CRP) and ferritin have been reported to reflect the extent of oxidative stress and inflammation in individual patients and may be useful markers of disease activity and mortality risk. Exposure to oxidative stress has been reported to increase ferritin synthesis. We investigated the relationship between oxidative stress with CRP and ferritin concentrations in febrile emergency room patients to test the hypothesis whether the intensity of oxidative stress correlated with serum ferritin concentration.

Role of open lung biopsy in patients with diffuse lung infiltrates and acute respiratory failure.

Background And Purpose: Open lung biopsy (OLB) is the standard procedure for the diagnosis of specific parenchymal lung diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of OLB on subsequent treatment strategy and outcome in patients with diffuse lung infiltrates and acute respiratory failure.

Methods: This retrospective review included 32 patients (aged 50.

Echogenic swirling pattern as a predictor of malignant pleural effusions in patients with malignancies.

Objectives: Chest ultrasonography is a useful diagnostic tool for the detection of pleural effusions of different etiologies. Our purpose was to determine whether the echogenic swirling pattern identifiable on real-time chest ultrasonographic images is a predictor of malignant pleural effusions in patients with malignancies.

Design: Medical records of patients undergoing chest ultrasonography in the Tri-Service General Hospital (Taiwan) between January 2000 and December 2002 were reviewed retrospectively.

The protective effect of adenosine triphosphate-MgCl2 on ischemia-reperfusion lung injury is leukocyte dependent.

Adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-MgCl(2) attenuates ischemia-reperfusion (I-R)-induced lung injury in rats. A previous study indirectly suggests that Mg(2+)-dependent ecto-ATPases on the surface of leukocytes are responsible for the hydrolysis of ATP-MgCl(2) to adenosine, which then contributes to the protective effect of ATP-MgCl(2). This study investigated the role of leukocytes in I-R injury and the protective effect of ATP-MgCl(2) in our buffer-perfused isolated rat lung model.

Effect of ascorbic acid administration in hemodialysis patients on in vitro oxidative stress parameters: influence of serum ferritin levels.

Background: Ascorbic acid supplementation has been recommended to circumvent resistance to erythropoietin, which sometimes occurs in iron-overloaded uremic patients. In considering the pro-oxidant effect of ascorbic acid, the authors hypothesize that adjuvant therapy with larger doses of ascorbic acid in hemodialysis patients with iron overload may raise the risk of increasing free radical generation. The oxidative stress of intravenous ascorbic acid supplementation in hemodialysis patients was evaluated in this study.