Intra-operative use of inhaled vasodilators: are there indications?

The US Food and Drug Administration and European authorities have recently approved inhaled nitric oxide for the treatment of neonates with hypoxic respiratory failure associated with pulmonary hypertension. In addition to this highly specific condition, there is an increasing 'off-label' use of inhaled nitric oxide and other inhaled vasodilators in the perioperative setting. Potential indications include right heart failure as a result of acute pulmonary hypertension in cardiac and non-cardiac surgery, the prevention of reperfusion injury in lung transplantation, the treatment of hypoxaemia during single-lung ventilation, and more recently, the treatment of sickle cell crisis.

Regional blood flow during hyperoxic haemodilution.

Background: Ventilation with pure oxygen (hyperoxic ventilation, HV) increases arterial oxygen content (CaO(2)). However HV induces arteriolar constriction and thus potentially affects O(2) supply. We therefore investigated the effects of HV on regional blood flow (RBF) and O(2) supply of different vital organs during moderate normovolaemic anaemia.

Evaluation of magnetic navigation in an in vitro model of uterine artery embolization.

Purpose: To compare steering of a novel magnetic guide wire with a standard 0.014-inch guide wire within a vascular phantom.

Materials And Methods: The magnetic guiding system (MGS) was composed of two permanent magnets on each long side of the fluoroscopy table generating a 0.

A computer model of fractal myocardial perfusion heterogeneity to elucidate mechanisms of changes in critical coronary stenosis and hypotension.

Critical coronary stenosis (critical CS) alone does not lead to an alteration of fractal dimension (D) under resting conditions in a pig model, indicating undisturbed local myocardial perfusion. If critical CS is combined with hypovolemic anemia the resulting hypotension leads to a significant decline of D. The mechanisms involved in this phenomenon have not yet been elucidated.

Vascular guide wire navigation with a magnetic guidance system: experimental results in a phantom.

Purpose: To investigate the efficacy of a second-generation prototype magnetic guidance system in complex vessel phantoms versus conventional navigation in simulated interventional radiology procedures and to analyze procedure and fluoroscopy times.

Materials And Methods: The magnetic guidance system consists of two focused-field permanent magnets on each side of the body that create a 0.1-T navigation field and is integrated with a modified C-arm single-planar digital angiography system.

Observer variabilities of radiological classifications of calcified deposits in calcifying tendinitis of the shoulder.

The radiological morphology of calcified deposits in calcifying tendinitis of the shoulder is classified according to Patte and Goutallier and according to Mole et al. The results of these classifications influence the choice of therapeutic procedures. In this study, the intraoberserver reproducibility and interobserver reliability of these classifications were determined.

Inter and intraobserver variability in DePalma's classification of shoulder calcific tendinitis.

Objective: To determine the intraobserver reproducibility and interobserver reliability of DePalma and Kruper's classification of calcific tendinitis of the rotator cuff. The result of this classification influences the choice of therapeutic procedures in patients with symptomatic calcific tendinitis.

Methods: Plain anteroposterior radiographs of shoulders from 100 patients with symptomatic calcified deposits of the rotator cuff were classified according to the criteria of DePalma and Kruper by 6 independent observers at 2 different time points within 4 months.