Quality of Life in Patients With Chronic Limb-Threatening Ischemia Treated With Revascularization.

Background: In the BEST-CLI trial (Best Endovascular Versus Best Surgical Therapy for Patients With Chronic Limb-Threatening Ischemia), a prespecified secondary objective was to assess the effects of revascularization strategy on health-related quality of life (HRQoL).

Methods: Patients with chronic limb-threatening ischemia were randomized to surgical bypass (Bypass) or endovascular intervention (Endo) in 2 parallel trials. Cohort 1 included patients with single-segment great saphenous vein; cohort 2 included those lacking suitable single-segment great saphenous vein.

Cardiac Magnetic Resonance to Predict Cardiac Mass Malignancy: The CMR Mass Score.

Background: Multimodality imaging is currently suggested for the noninvasive diagnosis of cardiac masses. The identification of cardiac masses' malignant nature is essential to guide proper treatment. We aimed to develop a cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR)-derived model including mass localization, morphology, and tissue characterization to predict malignancy (with histology as gold standard), to compare its accuracy versus the diagnostic echocardiographic mass score, and to evaluate its prognostic ability.

Surgery or Endovascular Therapy for Chronic Limb-Threatening Ischemia.

Background: Patients with chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) require revascularization to improve limb perfusion and thereby limit the risk of amputation. It is uncertain whether an initial strategy of endovascular therapy or surgical revascularization for CLTI is superior for improving limb outcomes.

Methods: In this international, randomized trial, we enrolled 1830 patients with CLTI and infrainguinal peripheral artery disease in two parallel-cohort trials.

Short-Term Trends in Elbow Ulnar Collateral Ligament Surgery in Collegiate Baseball Players: An Analysis of 25,587 Player-Years.

Background: Trends over time in the incidence of ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) surgeries in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I baseball players are currently unknown.

Purpose/hypothesis: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the trends in UCL surgeries over 3 years in Division I baseball programs. We hypothesized that surgical injuries would be consistently high over the course of the study.

Highly efficient head-only magnetic field insert gradient coil for achieving simultaneous high gradient amplitude and slew rate at 3.0T (MAGNUS) for brain microstructure imaging.

Purpose: To develop a highly efficient magnetic field gradient coil for head imaging that achieves 200 mT/m and 500 T/m/s on each axis using a standard 1 MVA gradient driver in clinical whole-body 3.0T MR magnet.

Methods: A 42-cm inner diameter head-gradient used the available 89- to 91-cm warm bore space in a whole-body 3.

Novel Potent Decameric Peptide of Spirulina platensis Reduces Blood Pressure Levels Through a PI3K/AKT/eNOS-Dependent Mechanism.

Considered as a superfood of the future, Spirulina platensis matrix has been extensively used because of its beneficial effect on the management of cardiovascular diseases. However, its nutraceutical properties, bioactive compounds, and molecular mechanisms are unknown. Here, we demonstrate that S platensis matrix processed in vitro by simulated gastrointestinal digestion induces direct endothelial nitric oxide (NO)-mediated vasorelaxation of resistance vessels in mice.

Incidence of Elbow Ulnar Collateral Ligament Surgery in Collegiate Baseball Players.

Background: Recent reports have highlighted the progressive increase in the incidence of ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) injuries to the elbow in baseball players of all levels. However, knowledge of the incidence and other epidemiological factors regarding UCL injuries, specifically in college baseball players, is currently lacking.

Purpose: To evaluate, over a period of 1 year, the incidence of UCL injuries requiring surgery in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I baseball programs.

In-field and in-vitro study of the moss Leptodictyum riparium as bioindicator of toxic metal pollution in the aquatic environment: Ultrastructural damage, oxidative stress and HSP70 induction.

This study evaluates the effects of toxic metal pollution in the highly contaminated Sarno River (South Italy), by using the aquatic moss Leptodictyum riparium in bags at 3 representative sites of the river. Biological effects were assessed by metal bioaccumulation, ultrastructural changes, oxidative stress, as Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) production and Glutathione S-transferase (GST) activity, as well as Heat Shock Proteins 70 (HSP70s) induction. The results showed that L.

Water pollution causes ultrastructural and functional damages in Pellia neesiana (Gottsche) Limpr.

The aim of this work is to evaluate the effects of freshwater pollution in the heavily contaminated Sarno River (Campania, South Italy), using Pellia neesiana (Pelliaceae Metzgeriales) in order to propose this liverwort as a potential bioindicator, able to record the effects of water pollution, particularly the one related to metal (loid) contamination. Samples of P. neesiana in nylon bags were disposed floating for one week on the waters of Sarno River in three sites characterised by an increasing pollution.

β-Cell Glucose Sensitivity Is Linked to Insulin/Glucagon Bihormonal Cells in Nondiabetic Humans.

Context: Insulin resistance impacts virtually all tissues, including pancreatic β cells. Individuals with insulin resistance, but without diabetes, exhibit an increased islet size because of an elevated number of both β and α cells. Neogenesis from duct cells and transdifferentiation of α cells have been postulated to contribute to the β-cell compensatory response to insulin resistance.

Effects of heavy metals on ultrastructure and Hsp70 induction in Lemna minor L. exposed to water along the Sarno River, Italy.

The effects of freshwater pollution in the highly contaminated river Sarno (Campania, Southern Italy) have been evaluated using bags containing the aquatic plant Lemna minor (Lemnacee, Arales), in order to determine morpho-physiological modifications as a response to pollutants. The exposition of Lemna bags for 7 days on three different sites along the river path showed alterations in chloroplasts and vacuoles shape and organization. Moreover, some specimens were exposed in vitro at the same heavy metal (HM) concentrations measured in the polluted sites of the river, and compared with data from the bag experiment; to verify the dose and time dependent effects, samples were exposed to HM in vitro at concentrations ranging from 10(-6) to 10(-4)M up to 7 days.

Membrane glycerolipid remodeling triggered by nitrogen and phosphorus starvation in Phaeodactylum tricornutum.

Diatoms constitute a major phylum of phytoplankton biodiversity in ocean water and freshwater ecosystems. They are known to respond to some chemical variations of the environment by the accumulation of triacylglycerol, but the relative changes occurring in membrane glycerolipids have not yet been studied. Our goal was first to define a reference for the glycerolipidome of the marine model diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum, a necessary prerequisite to characterize and dissect the lipid metabolic routes that are orchestrated and regulated to build up each subcellular membrane compartment.

Dual response of the KATP channels to staurosporine: a novel role of SUR2B, SUR1 and Kir6.2 subunits in the regulation of the atrophy in different skeletal muscle phenotypes.

We investigated on the role of the genes encoding for the ATP-sensitive K(+)-channel (KATP) subunits (SUR1-2A/B, Kir6.2) in the atrophy induced "in vitro" by staurosporine (STS) in different skeletal muscle phenotypes of mouse. Patch-clamp and gene expression experiments showed that the expression/activity of the sarcolemma KATP channel subunits was higher in the fast-twitch than in the slow-twitch fibers.

Search for a light pseudoscalar Higgs boson in the dimuon decay channel in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV.

The dimuon invariant mass spectrum is searched in the range between 5.5 and 14 GeV for a light pseudoscalar Higgs boson a, predicted in a number of new physics models, including the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model. The data sample used in the search corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 1.