A New Full-Face Mask for Multifunctional Non-Invasive Ventilation.

: Noninvasive ventilation (NIV) provides positive pressure through different interfaces. A multifunctional full-face mask prototype was developed to provide NIV from three sources: ICU ventilators, portable ventilators, and high-flow medical gas pipeline systems. This study aimed to evaluate the usability of this prototype mask.

Effect of preservation solution and distension pressure on saphenous vein's endothelium.

Objectives: Approaches to improve saphenous vein (SV) patency in coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery remain relevant. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of different preservation solutions and different pressures of intraluminal distention on the endothelium of SV segments in CABG.

Methods: Forty-two SV segments obtained from 12 patients undergoing CABG were divided into 7 groups.

Streptococcus mutans in atherosclerotic plaque: Molecular and immunohistochemical evaluations.

Objectives: To verify the presence of Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans) in atherosclerotic plaque (AP) using techniques with different sensitivities, correlating with histological changes in plaque and immunoexpression of inflammatory markers.

Materials And Methods: Thirteen AP samples were subjected to real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), histopathological analyses, histochemical analysis by Giemsa staining (GS), and immunohistochemical analysis for S.

Molecular analysis of oral bacteria in dental biofilm and atherosclerotic plaques of patients with vascular disease.

Background: Oral bacteria have been detected in atherosclerotic plaques at a variable frequency; however, the connection between oral health and vascular and oral bacterial profiles of patients with vascular disease is not clearly established. The aim of this study was to evaluate the presence of oral bacterial DNA in the mouth and atherosclerotic plaques, in addition to assessing the patients' caries and periodontal disease history.

Methods: Thirty samples of supragingival and subgingival plaque, saliva and atherosclerotic plaques of 13 patients with carotid stenosis or aortic aneurysm were evaluated, through real-time polymerase chain reaction, for the presence of Streptococcus mutans (SM), Prevotella intermedia (PI), Porphyromonas gingivalis (PG) and Treponema denticola (TD).

Doppler echocardiographic criteria in patency assessment of composite grafts from left internal thoracic artery.

Objectives: The purpose of our study was to establish, with an entirely noninvasive method, transthoracic Doppler echocardiography, criteria for patency of composite left internal thoracic artery grafts when placed on the left anterior descending artery and other branches of the left coronary system.

Methods: The control group comprised 20 patients with single graft and 20 patients with composite graft; all forty having their patency confirmed by coronary angiogram (CA). In this control group, two Doppler echocardiographic variables, diastolic mean velocity-time and integral diastolic peak velocity to systolic peak velocity ratio were recorded.

Experimental model of myocardial infarction induced by isoproterenol in rats.

Objective: To evaluate and validate, in our laboratory, the essay of myocardial infarction induced by isoproterenol in rats by means of analysis of hematological, biochemical, oxidative stress markers and histopathological parameters.

Methods: Thirty young, male, Wistar rats (145 to 230 g) were randomly allocated in two groups: Sham group, which underwent a virtual myocardial infarction induction, and the Infarction group, which underwent a myocardial infarction induction with isoproterenol. The administrations for the infarction induction were performed during two consecutive days and a 24-hour interval between them.

Infected aneurysm of brachial artery after mitral valve infective endocarditis.

We present a case of brachial artery infected aneurysm in a patient with infective endocarditis caused by Streptococcus bovis. A 49-year-old man presented with fever dyspnea and a pansystolic murmur with irradiation to axilla. The echocardiogram revealed vegetation in native mitral valve.

Left internal thoracic artery and saphenous vein as a composite graft: 8-year angiographic follow-up study.

The use of a composite graft with left internal thoracic artery (LITA) and arterial or saphenous vein (SV) grafts can allow the complete revascularization of the left coronary system (LCS) without cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) and without ascending aorta manipulation (AAM), in order to reduce some complications in the immediate postoperative. This study shows 8-year angiographic follow-up results of two patients underwent no-touch aorta off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) using LITA and SV as a composite graft to supply LCS.