Usefulness of "AcT ratio" in diagnosis of internal carotid artery stenosis: a multicenter, retrospective, observational study.

Purpose: The ratio of the internal carotid artery (ICA) to the common carotid artery (CCA), especially the "AcT ratio," which is a modified measurement method of acceleration time, is useful for diagnosing ICA-origin stenosis. However, previous studies were single-center studies. Therefore, this multicenter, retrospective, cross-sectional study aimed to determine whether a method using the AcT ratio is useful for estimating stenosis rates.

Ultrasound diagnosis of carotid artery stenosis and occlusion.

Carotid artery ultrasonography is capable of diagnosing or inferring the presence or absence of stenosis or occlusion of the internal carotid artery (ICA) and vertebral artery (VA), as well as the not directly observable distal ICA, middle cerebral artery (MCA), and basilar artery (BA). Stenosis at the origin of the ICA is mainly evaluated using the parameter peak systolic velocity (PSV), with values of ≥ 200-230 cm/s indicating severe stenosis. Recently, the acceleration time ratio has been reported for diagnosis of ICA origin stenosis.

Point-of-care ultrasound for stroke patients in the emergency room.

Stroke requires rapid determination of the cause to provide timely and appropriate initial management. Various ultrasonographic techniques have been evaluated as ways to determine the cause of stroke; among them, carotid artery ultrasonography is particularly useful since it provides considerable information within a short time period when used to evaluate a specific site. In the emergency room, carotid artery ultrasonography can be used to diagnose internal carotid artery stenosis, predict an occluded vessel, and infer the cause of ischemic stroke.

A Novel Approach for Endoscopic Papillary Balloon Dilation with the Guidewire Left in the Pancreatic Duct to Ensure Pancreatic Stenting.

Background/aims: Endoscopic papillary balloon dilation (EPBD) was reported to be superior for preserving the function of the sphincter of Oddi and to cause fewer late complications than endoscopic sphincterotomy. If the early complication of post-EPBD pancreatitis can be prevented, EPBD might be useful as long-term outcomes. This study assessed the feasibility of a novel EPBD for the purpose of reliable post-EPBD pancreatic stenting.

The Influence of Age and Sex on Cervical Spinal Alignment Among Volunteers Aged Over 50.

Study Design: Large cohort study of volunteers aged over 50.

Objective: To investigate influence of age and sex on cervical sagittal alignment among volunteers aged over 50.

Summary Of Background Data: Few large-scale studies have described normative values in cervical spine alignment regarding age and sex among volunteers aged over 50.

Late administration of a specific COX-2 inhibitor does not treat and/or prevent progression of gastric tumors in rats submitted to duodenogastric reflux procedure.

Purpose: To assess whether late introduction of a specific COX-2 inhibitor (Meloxicam) can treat and/or prevent the progression of tumors in the stomach of rats submitted to duodenogastric reflux.

Methods: Seventy five male Wistar rats, weighing 150 grams, were submitted to the induction of duodenogastric reflux through the pylorus. At 36 weeks of follow-up were established three experimental groups: DGR36 sacrificed immediately, DGR54 and DGR54MLX both sacrificed at 54th week of follow-up .

Diclofenac sodium and Imipenem action on rat intestinal mucosa: a biomechanical and histological study.

Purpose: To study diclofenac sodium induced histological and mechanical alterations and their prevention with Imipenem in rat intestine.

Methods: Male Wistar rats (n=240) were randomly assigned to four experimental groups: GI: n=60 treated with 0.9% saline IM; GII: n=60 treated with 6 mg/kg body weight diclofenac sodium IM for four days; GIII: n=60 treated with 30 mg/kg body weight Imipenem IM for four days, and GIV n=60 treated with diclofenac sodium plus Imipenem at the above doses IM for 4 days.

Accuracy of six minute walk test, stair test and spirometry using maximal oxygen uptake as gold standard.

Purpose: To assess the accuracy of the variables stair climbing time (SCt), stair climbing power (SCP), six-minute walk test distance (6MWT), and forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) using maximal oxygen uptake on exercise (VO(2)max) as the gold standard.

Methods: Tests were performed in 51 patients. FEV1 was measured by spirometry and 6MWT was performed in a flat 120-m corridor.

Carcinogenesis of the upper gastrointestinal tract induced by N-methyl-N'-nitro-nitrosoguanidine and reflux of duodenal contents in the rat.

Purpose: To investigate the combined effects of reflux of duodenal contents through the pylorus and treatment with N-methyl-N'-nitro-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG) on the development of lesions in the glandular stomach, at the gastrojejunal anastomosis and in the forestomach of rats.

Methods: Eighty Male Wistar rats were divided into 4 groups: G1: MNNG + Reflux, G2: Reflux, G3: MNNG and G4: Gastrostomy. MNNG was given in the drinking water (100 mg/ml) for 12 weeks and then two groups (G1 and G2) were submitted to a gastrojejunal anastomosis followed by section of the afferent loop and suture of both stumps to allow reflux of duodenal contents through the pylorus.

Absolute blood contrast concentration and blood signal saturation on myocardial perfusion MRI: estimation from CT data.

Purpose: To determine the optimal contrast injection rate and absolute blood gadolinium concentration for optimal first-pass imaging.

Materials And Methods: The concentration of contrast medium in left ventricle (LV) was estimated from dynamic computed tomography (CT) by administering iodinated contrast medium of volume (0.2 mL/kg) equivalent to 0.

Alterations in the intestinal wall due to protein malnutrition in rats: evaluation of the rupture strength and the tissue's collagen.

Purpose: To study the effect of protein malnutrition on the intestinal wall of rats by evaluating alterations in the rupture force and dosing tissue collagen in the ileum and distal colon.

Methods: One hundred and twenty rats, that had an average weight of 100g, were used. They received water and a standard diet with 20% protein during 7 days for adaptation to the diet itself and to environmental conditions.

The effect of gastric dilatation in rats submitted to gasified water ingestion under the hepatic metabolic function.

Introduction: The amounts of people that are overweight have been increasing within the population in significant ways during the last decades. In this view, gasified beverages have become an important environmental concern in relation to the eating habits of people, especially who lives in the USA, Mexico, and Brazil. In this order, these three countries constitute the major beverages producers and consumers of the whole world.

Does troncular vagotomy modify the proliferative gastric lesions induced in rats by duodenogastric reflux?

Purpose: to investigate if combining VT to DGR through the pylorus can modulate the biological behavior of PL induced by DGR and to verify if TV alone can induce morphologic lesions in the gastric mucosa.

Methods: 62 male Wistar rats were assigned to four groups: 1 - Control (CT) gastrotomy; 2 - Troncular Vagotomy (TV) plus gastrotomy; 3 - Duodenogastric reflux through the pylorus (R) and 4 - Troncular vagotomy plus DGR (RTV). The animals were killed at the 54 week of the experiment.

Radiofrequency ablation with and without balloon occlusion of the renal artery: an experimental study in porcine kidneys.

Purpose: To compare thermal lesion volumes and associated renal damage (other than thermal lesions) when radiofrequency (RF) ablation is performed with and without balloon occlusion of the renal artery in normal porcine kidneys.

Materials And Methods: RF ablation was performed in six pigs. An electrode with eight circumferential prongs arranged in a circle 20 mm in diameter was inserted into the lower pole of the kidney.

Invasive enteritis by Strongyloides stercoralis presenting as acute abdominal distress under corticosteroid therapy.

Overwhelming helminthiasis is still a problem in endemic areas, especially in immunocompromised patients. We report a case of invasive intestinal strongyloidiasis that was clinically expressed as acute abdominal distress in a 73-year-old man from São Paulo who had been receiving methylprednisone, 20 mg/day, for one year for osteoarthritis. A surgical specimen from the ileum revealed invasive enteritis with severe infestation by Strongyloides stercoralis.

Radiation therapy for life- or function-threatening infant hemangioma.

Purpose: To assess the effectiveness and long-term results of radiation therapy in infants with life- or function-threatening hemangiomas.

Materials And Methods: Thirteen patients with life- or function-threatening hemangiomas (eight male, five female; age range, 0-8 months; median age, 2 months) were treated with radiation therapy. Life-threatening hemangiomas were treated with five fractions of radiation per week, and function-threatening hemangiomas were treated with two fractions per week.

Early and late effects of wound healing on development of colon tumours in a model of colon carcinogenesis by 1,2-dimethylhydrazine in the rat.

The early and late effects of wound healing on tumour development at a distant site were evaluated morphologically in an experimental model of colon carcinogenesis induced by 1,2-dimethylhydrazine (DMH). Random bred male Wistar rats were given subcutaneous injections of DMH (20 mg/kg) or saline, once a week, for eight weeks. One week after the last DMH injection the animals received a full thickness skin wound in their dorsal skin and the wound was left open to heal by second intention.

Biological differences between reflux stimulated proliferative stomal lesions and N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine induced carcinomas in Wistar rats.

The morphology and evolution of epithelial lesions that developed at a gastrojejunal stoma due to reflux of duodenal contents were compared with MNNG-induced carcinomas in the pyloric mucosa of rats in a long term experiment. Random bred male Wistar rats were given MNNG in drinking water (100 mg/l) for 12 weeks and then one group was submitted to a gastrojejunal anastomosis at the greater curvature in the oxyntic mucosa. Untreated rats underwent either gastrojejunostomy or gastrotomy.

[Clinical study of grade 3, superficial transitional cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder].

Purpose: To evaluate the treatment of grade 3 superficial (stage pTa and pT 1) transitional cell carcinoma (T.C.C.

[Sodium diclofenac effect, after interruption of the stercoraceous peritonitis, on the rat colon. Study of mechanical resistance and collagen concentration].

Unlabelled: The objective of the present study was to investigate changes in colon wall in rats with fecal peritonitis (Per) associated with sodium diclofenac (SD) by studying breaking strength and tissue collagen concentration. The rats were divided into the following experimental groups: GROUP 1-SD: 60 animals injected intramuscularly with sodium diclofenac at the dose of 2 mg/kg body weight; GROUP 2-Per: 60 animals injected intraperitoneally with a suspension of human feces. Peritonitis was interrupted after six hours of evolution; GROUP 3-Per+SD: 60 animals injected intraperitoneally with a suspension of human feces and receiving SD according to the schedule used for Groups 1 and 2;

Control Group: 12 animals injected intramuscularly with physiological saline.

Gastric and small intestinal lesions after partial stomach resection with Billroth II or Roux-en-Y reconstruction in the rat.

The evolution and phenotypic expression of mucosal lesions of the gastric stump were investigated in male rats submitted to gastric resection with reconstruction by the Billroth II technique (BII with biliopancreatic reflux, BPR) or by the Roux-en-Y procedure (without BPR). Animals were studied at 24, 36, 54 and 64 weeks after surgery and the phenotypic expression of lesions analysed using routine hematoxylin and eosin staining, immunohistochemical staining for pepsinogen isoenzyme 1 and histochemical procedures for mucins (paradoxical concanavalin A, galactose oxidase Schiff (GOS) and sialidase GOS reactions). BPR was found to be responsible for the formation of adenomatous hyperplasia (AH), increasing in incidence and size with time, since the Roux-en-Y procedure failed to induce the gastric stump lesions observed after BII reconstruction.

Altered foci of hepatocytes in rats initiated with diethylnitrosamine after prolonged fasting.

The influence of fasting on the potential of diethylnitrosamine (DEN) to initiate liver carcinogenesis was tested in a medium-term assay using the development of putative preneoplastic altered foci of hepatocytes (AFH) as the endpoint. Male Wistar rats fasted for 48 hr were given a single ip injection of DEN (200 mg/kg body weight). Partial hepatectomies were carried out at wk 3 and the rats were killed at wk 8.

Reduction of cell proliferative activities of gastric stump adenomatous hyperplasias after bile reflux diversion in rats.

Previously we reported the majority of lesions induced by bile reflux, in the absence of chemical carcinogens, in the rat remnant stomach to consist primarily of gastric type and secondarily of intestinal type cells, and that they are reversible after diversion of bile reflux. The present study was designed to evaluate changes in proliferative activities in cells of each type under these conditions. The frequency of adenomatous hyperplasia (AH) induced in the gastric stump mucosa by duodenal content reflux after Billroth II partial gastrectomy (BII) increased until the 54th week of the experiment.

Study of the torque of the bacterial flagellar motor using a rotating electric field.

Bacterial flagella are driven by a rotary motor that is energized by an electrochemical ion gradient across the cell membrane. In this study the torque generated by the flagellar motor was measured in tethered cells of a smooth-swimming Escherichia coli strain by using rotating electric fields to determine the relationship between the torque and speed over a wide range. By measuring the electric current applied to the sample cell and combining the data obtained at different viscosities, the torque of the flagellar motor was estimated up to 55 Hz, and also at negative rotation rates.

Intra-GBM site of the functional filtration barrier for endogenous proteins in rats.

The passage of various endogenous proteins [such as albumin, transferrin, immunoglobulin G (IgG), and immunoglobulin M (IgM)] across GBM was studied in vivo in normal Munich-Wistar rats. Glomeruli were fixed by three different methods: in situ drip-fixation, perfusion- and immersion-fixation; then they were processed for immunogold electron microscopy. The most reproducible results were obtained with in situ drip-fixation.