Risk prediction of inappropriate implantable cardioverter-defibrillator therapy using machine learning.

We aimed to develop machine learning-based predictive models for identifying inappropriate implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) therapy. Our study included 182 consecutive cases (average age 62.2 ± 4.

Predictors of In-Hospital Death in Patients With Acute Myocardial Infarction.

Objective: Factors such as age, vital signs, renal function, Killip class, cardiac arrest, elevated cardiac biomarker levels, and ST deviation predict survival in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). However, the existing risk assessment tools lack comprehensive consideration of catheter-related factors, and short-term prognostic predictors are unknown. This study aimed to clarify in-hospital prognostic predictors in hospitalized patients with AMI.

Clinical Significance of Coronary Healed Plaques in Stable Angina Pectoris Patients Undergoing Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.

Background: Coronary healed plaques (HPs) reportedly have high vulnerability or show advanced atherosclerosis and a risk of rapid plaque progression. However, the prognosis of stable angina pectoris (SAP) patients with HPs undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) remains under-investigated.

Methods and results: We analyzed 417 consecutive lesions from SAP patients undergoing pre- and post-intervention optical coherence tomography (OCT) for which HPs were defined as having a layered appearance.

Transcriptional regulation of the ferric aerobactin receptor gene by a GntR-like repressor IutR in Vibrio furnissii.

We found that Vibrio furnissii can utilize aerobactin (AERO) as a xenosiderophore. A homology search of its genome revealed that this bacterium possesses genes encoding an AERO-mediated iron acquisition system similar to that of V. vulnificus.

Development of a multiple detection technique for fungi by DNA microarray with the simultaneous use of internal transcribed spacer region of ribosomal RNA gene and β-tubulin gene probes.

We offer the first description of the development of a multiple detection technique for fungi by DNA microarray with the simultaneous use of internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) of ribosomal RNA gene and β-tubulin gene probes. The assay uses 12 oligonucleotide probes and multiplex amplification to detect fungal species belonging to various sections of Aspergillus, the Eurotium genus, and the Penicillium genus. The specificity of each probe was tested using 231 reference fungal strains, including 79 target and 152 non-target strains in 102 species of 24 genera.

Eicosapentaenoic Acid combined with optimal statin therapy improves endothelial dysfunction in patients with coronary artery disease.

Purpose: Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) has been reported to augment endothelial function and improve clinical outcomes in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). The purpose of this study was to determine whether EPA could improve residual endothelial dysfunction despite adequate lipid-lowering with statin in CAD patients.

Methods: Eighty patients with established CAD, who had been on statin treatment and had serum low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels <100 mg/dl, were randomly assigned to receive either 1,800 mg of EPA daily plus statin (EPA group, n = 40) or statin alone (Control group, n = 40).

Longitudinal heterogeneity of coronary artery distensibility in plaques related to acute coronary syndrome.

Background: How coronary distensibility contributes to stable or unstable clinical manifestations remains obscure. We postulated that the heterogeneous plaque distensibility is associated with unstable clinical presentations in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS).

Methods And Results: Seventeen and 19 ACS-related and -unrelated lesions, respectively, were visualized using intravascular ultrasound imaging with simultaneous intracoronary pressure recording.

[Anesthetic management for robot assisted off-pump construction of composite graft using the da Vinci surgical system].

Robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery has become common in recent years. We used the da Vinci surgical system and managed anesthesia in 6 cases of bilateral internal mammary artery dissection and construction of a composite graft using the radial artery. To ensure vision inside the thoracic cavity, endoscopic robotic surgery employs the inflation of the thoracic cavity with carbon dioxide, producing a pneumothorax and turning the thoracic cavity into a positive pressure chamber.

Reduction of brain infarction induced by a transient brain ischemia in mdr1a knockout mice.

In order to evaluate the functional role of P-glycoprotein (P-gp) in cerebral ischemia, both multidrug resistance 1a knockout (KO) mice and wild-type mice were subjected to transient focal ischemia under a constant body and brain temperature about 37 degrees C. The results showed that the volume of brain infarction induced by middle cerebral artery occlusion in KO mice was significantly smaller than that seen in wild-type mice, although there were no significant differences in cerebral blood flow, physiological data and on anatomical analysis of cerebrovasculature between both groups. We suggest that multidrug resistance 1a P-gp plays a role for adjusting the expressions of endogenous neuronal cell modulating substances, such as cytokines, neuronal peptides, and others, in the brain, which is consistent with a previous paper (Bobrov et al.

An atypical case of fulminant interstitial pneumonitis induced by carbamazepine.

Carbamazepine is a therapeutic anticonvulsant, used to manage pain. We often use it to treat trigeminal and post-herpes zoster neuralgias. Interstitial pneumonitis (IP) is a known adverse consequence of using carbamazepine, with bronchiolitis obliterans and organizing pneumonitis.

A Virulence-Reducing Mutation in the Postharvest Citrus Pathogen Alternaria citri.

ABSTRACT Alternaria citri causes Alternaria black rot, a postharvest fruit disease, on a broad range of citrus cultivars. We previously described that an endopolygalacturonase minus mutant of A. citri caused significantly less black rot in citrus fruit.

Green Fluorescent Detection of Fungal Colonization and Endopolygalacturonase Gene Expression in the Interaction of Alternaria citri with Citrus.

ABSTRACT Alternaria citri, a postharvest pathogen, produces endopolygalacturonase (endoPG) and causes black rot on citrus fruit. We previously described that an endoPG-disrupted mutant of Alternaria citri was significantly reduced in its ability to macerate plant tissue and cause black rot symptoms on citrus. In order to investigate colonization of citrus fruit tissues by Alternaria citri, pTEFEGFP carrying a green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene was introduced into wild-type Alternaria citri and its endoPG-disrupted mutant (M60).

Isoflurane inhibits protein kinase Cgamma and calcium/calmodulin dependent protein kinase ii-alpha translocation to synaptic membranes in ischemic mice brains.

Volatile anesthetics isoflurane possibly improves the ischemic brain injury. However, its molecular actions are still unclear. In ischemia, protein kinase C (PKC)gamma and calcium/calmodulin dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII)-alpha are persistently translocated from cytosol to cell membranes, and diminish these translocation suggested to be neuroprotective.

[Effects of intravenous anesthetics on acidosis induced apoptosis in primary brain cell culture].

Background: We have reported protective effects of intravenous anesthetics on the brain cell. This study examined the effects of extracellular Ca2+ on acidosis-induced apoptosis and the protective effects of intravenous anesthetics on such appearance of apoptosis.

Methods: Using the primary culture of rat cerebellular granule cells, extracellular acidosis was produced at pH 6.

Increases in COX II mRNA in the rat spinal cord induced by cauda equina traction.

This article investigated the time response of COX II induction by traction of the cauda equina assessed by a quantified RT-PCR method. Under deep GOI anesthesia, male Wistar rats were fixed in the prone position and a laminectomy of the dorsal part of the first and second sacral vertebrae was performed. Following, COX II-mRNA levels in the cervical, thoracic, lumbar, sacral, and caudal segments were measured at 2, 4, 6, and 24 h after traction by a quantified RT-PCR method.

Effect of cyclosporin a on immediate early gene in rat global ischemia and its neuroprotection.

The expressions of the immediate early genes, c-fos and c-jun, and their product proteins C-FOS, C-JUN, and P-JUN were examined in the hippocampal CA1 subfield after global ischemia and reperfusion in rats treated with cyclosporin A. More than 90% neuronal cell death was seen in hippocampal CA1 7 days after global ischemia in control animals, but only 5% cell death after ischemia was seen in the CsA-treated animals. The expressions of c-fos and c-jun mRNA in the control animals were detected with an increase from 1 to 48 h after ischemia.

[Neuroprotective effects of novel derivatives of vasoactive intestinal peptide and pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating peptide in two brain ischemic models on mice].

Background: Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), and pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating peptide (PACAP), are members of a VIP/secretin/glucagon family. These peptides were demonstrated to possess the neuroprotective properties. However, these peptides are not suited to be developed as a medicine for brain ischemia because of their susceptibilities to endopeptidases.

Application of symptom checklist for screening major depression by annual health examinations: a cross-validity study in the workplace.

To evaluate the effectiveness of a symptom checklist to detect major depression, 1424 subjects completed a pre-existing 22-item general symptom checklist at periodic health examinations. All subjects were interviewed to enable confirmatory diagnosis of major depression. Nine out of the 22 symptoms were more frequently reported in the subjects with major depression than in those without such a disorder.

Neuroprotective and neurotoxic effects of cyclosporine A on transient focal ischemia in mdr1a knockout mice.

The proper dose of cyclosporine A as a neuroprotective agent was investigated using the middle cerebral artery occlusion model of mdr1a knockout mice. After a 30-min occlusion period, reperfusion was performed and the vehicle or cyclosporine A (1 mg/kg or 10 mg/kg x 2) was intraperitoneally administered to each animal model group. Forty eight hours after reperfusion, infarction volume in the 1 mg/kg cyclosporine A group was significantly less than that seen in the vehicle group, although, in the high dose cyclosporine A group, infarction volumes were significantly higher than those seen in the vehicle group.

Inhibitory effects of extracellular matrix modulator(s) on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)- and acidosis-damaged glia containing cerebellar granule cell cultures.

The inhibitory effects of a novel chondroitin sulfate compound on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)- and acidosis-induced neuronal dysfunctions were examined. Cell viabilities in cultured neurons and/or astrocyte-rich cerebellar granule cells were measured by the calcein-AM method. Ten and 20 microg, as a final dosage, of LPS damaged less than 20% cells during a-2 h incubation.