Mortality Among Veterans Following Traumatic Brain Injury: A Veterans Administration Traumatic Brain Injury Model System Study.

Few studies have examined long-term mortality following traumatic brain injury (TBI) in a military population. This is a secondary analysis of a prospective, longitudinal study that examines long-term mortality (up to 10 years) post-TBI, including analyses of life expectancy, causes of death, and risk factors for death in service members and veterans (SM/V) who survived the acute TBI and inpatient rehabilitation. Among 922 participants in the study, the mortality rate was 8.

Effect of recording duration on the diagnostic accuracy of out-of-center sleep testing for obstructive sleep apnea.

Study Objectives: This study investigated the minimum recording time needed during out-of-center sleep testing (OCST) to accurately diagnose the presence and severity of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).

Design And Setting: A retrospective analysis was conducted of OCSTs performed from October 2009 to May 2012 at the Mayo Clinic Center of Sleep Medicine using the portable Embletta™ system.

Patients Or Participants: Demographic information was collected for patients who underwent OCSTs during the study period, including presenting symptoms, examination findings, and comorbidities.

Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension in pediatric patients.

Objective: Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension is a rare form of pulmonary hypertension that can lead to progressive right heart failure and death. Pulmonary thromboendarterectomy surgery is the treatment of choice resulting in significant improvements in functional status, cardiopulmonary hemodynamics, and survival. This study reports the largest case series of pediatric patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension who underwent pulmonary thromboendarterectomy surgery at one institution.

Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension.

The pulmonary hypertension (PH) and right heart dysfunction that results from chronic thromboembolic involvement of the pulmonary vascular bed is potentially curable with surgical endarterectomy. Over the past several decades, growing clinical experience has brought about increased recognition of this treatable form of PH. Moreover, advances in cardiothoracic surgical techniques have given an increasing number of patients with chronic thromboembolic PH (CTEPH) a surgical remedy with decreasing perioperative morbidity and mortality risks.

Phosphoinositide3-kinase regulates actin polymerization during delayed phagocytosis of Helicobacter pylori.

We have shown previously that ulcerogenic (type I) strains of Helicobacter pylori (Hp) retard their entry into macrophages. However, the signaling pathways that regulate Hp phagocytosis are largely undefined. We show here that Hp strongly activated class IA phosphoinositide3-kinases (PI3Ks) in macrophages, coincident with phagocytosis, and endogenous p85 and active protein kinase Balpha accumulated on forming phagosomes.

Helicobacter pylori disrupts NADPH oxidase targeting in human neutrophils to induce extracellular superoxide release.

Helicobacter pylori (Hp) infection triggers a chronic influx of polymorphonuclear leukocyte neutrophils (PMNs) into the gastric mucosa. Although Hp reside in a neutrophil-rich environment, how these organisms evade phagocytic killing is largely unexplored. We now show that live Hp (strains 11637, 60190, DT61A, and 11916) are readily ingested by PMNs and induce a rapid and strong respiratory burst that is comparable to PMA.