In-parallel artificial lung attachment at high flows in normal and pulmonary hypertension models.

Background: End-stage lung disease patients who require a thoracic artificial lung (TAL) must be extubated and rehabilitated prior to lung transplantation. The purpose of this study is to evaluate hemodynamics and TAL function under simulated rest and exercise conditions in normal and pulmonary hypertension sheep models.

Methods: The TAL, the MC3 Biolung (MC3, Inc, Ann Arbor, MI), was attached between the pulmonary artery and left atrium in nine normal sheep and eight sheep with chronic pulmonary hypertension.

Statistical evaluation of bacterial source tracking data obtained by rep-PCR DNA fingerprinting of Escherichia coli.

Pattern recognition has been applied to environmental systems for identification of numerous pollution sources including aerosolized lead and petroleum hydrocarbons. In recent years, DNA fingerprinting has gained widespread application as a means to characterize genetic variations for such purposes as microbial source tracking. This approach, however, is strongly dependent on the statistical and image analyses applied.