Coronary fractional flow reserve.

OBJECTIVE. This article presents the basic definitions and concepts of fractional flow reserve (FFR), a focused understanding of the need for hyperemia during assessment, key clinical studies supporting its use, and an introduction to newer noninvasive methods using FFR CT. CONCLUSION.

Characterization of ICAM-1 biophore to design cytoadherence blocking peptides.

Peptides from natural sources are good starting material to design bioactive agents with desired therapeutic property. IB peptide derived from the ICAM-1 has been studied extensively as an agent to disrupt the non-specific binding of lymphocyte to the endothelial cells. ICAM-1: IB molecular model reveals that IB peptide binds in an extended conformation to the ICAM-1, masking LFA-1 and partially covering PfEMP-1 binding site.

Trichophagia along with trichobezoar in the absence of trichotillomania.

Trichobezoars are rarely described in the absence of trichotillomania. In this report we present a case of trichobezoar associated with trichophagia in the absence of trichotillomania. A 16-year-old girl presented to surgery outpatient with complaints of pain in abdomen and vomiting for the last 6 months.

Determining adolescents' suitability for inpatient psychotherapy: utility of the clinician-rated Readiness for Inpatient Psychotherapy Scale with an adolescent inpatient sample.

Growing economic pressure on inpatient services for adolescents has resulted in fewer clinicians to provide individual psychotherapy. As a result, inpatient treatment trends have favored group psychotherapy modalities and psychopharmacological interventions. Currently, no clinician-rated measures exist to assist clinicians in determining who would be able to better utilize individual psychotherapy on inpatient units.

Assessing overall functioning with adolescent inpatients.

The current study sought to evaluate the validity and reliability of a brief measure of overall functioning for adolescents. Clinicians were asked to complete the Overall Functioning Scale (OFS) for 72 adolescents consecutively admitted to the adolescent psychiatric inpatient service of a community safety net medical center. The results revealed that this new measure is related to the patients' length of stay, clinician-rated measures of social cognition and object relations, Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) score at admission, as well as global rating of engagement in individual psychotherapy.

Effect of weight loss on ventricular repolarization in normotensive severely obese patients with and without heart failure.

Background: Obesity has been reported to be associated with delayed ventricular repolarization. The purpose of this study was to assess ventricular repolarization in normotensive severely obese subjects with and without heart failure (HF) and to assess the effect of weight loss on ventricular repolarization in such patients.

Methods: Twenty-eight patients with and 39 patients without HF (body mass index ≥ 40 kg/m(2)) were studied before and after weight loss from bariatric surgery.

Psychogenic hiccup in children and adolescents: a case series.

Hiccups can be due to organic diseases or psychogenic causes. Psychogenic hiccup in children is an understudied area. We report a series of four cases presenting with psychogenic hiccups to the Psychiatry Outpatient Clinic of a tertiary care hospital in North India.

Cryopreservation of quince (Cydonia oblonga Mill.).

Background: Quince (Cydonia oblonga Mill.) has great potential for utilisation in pharmaceutical and food industries.

Objective: The study was to develop an efficient cryopreservation approach for quince.

A comparative study of job satisfaction among regular and staff on contract in the primary health care system in Delhi, India.

Background: Job satisfaction is a pleasant emotional state associated with the appreciation of one's work and contributes immensely to performance in an organization. The purpose of this study was to assess the comparative job satisfaction among regular and staff on contract in Government Primary Urban Health Centers in Delhi, India.

Materials And Methods: The study was conducted in 2013, on a sample of 333 health care providers who were selected using a multistage random sampling technique.

Phagolysosomal Trafficking Assay.

Phagolysosomal trafficking is an important innate defense pathway that clears microbes by delivering them to lysosomes, the degradative compartment of the cell. (Mtb), the causative agent of tuberculosis, subverts this host defense mechanism by arresting maturation of the phagosome. The ability of Mtb to arrest its delivery to the lysosome can be demonstrated by the prolonged co-localization of bacteria containing phagosomes/vacuole with early phagosomal markers [such as, Ras-related proteins in the brain 5 (Rab5) and Transferrin receptor (TfR)], and a failure to acquire late phagosomal and lysosomal markers (such as Rab7 and LAMP1) (Deretic and Fratti, 1999, Mehra , 2013).

Analysis of Mycobacterial Protein Secretion.

(Mtb) is the causative agent of tuberculosis. Analysis of proteins secreted by Mtb has been of interest to the field of tuberculosis research since certain secreted proteins interact with the host to promote virulence, while others may be important antigens or serve as biomarkers of infection. Here, we describe a protocol to prepare whole cell extracts (WCE) and short term culture filtrate (CF) from Mtb or the vaccine strain bacillus Calmatte- Guérin (BCG) (Mehra , 2013).

Reinventing the general practitioner menopause clinic--personal experiences.

Menopause is accompanied by a plethora of symptoms. The 10 minute general practitioner consultation is ineffective in addressing all these symptoms. My experience of offering a 1 hour assessment and management has very positive and encouraging results.

African-American patients are less likely to receive drug-eluting stents during percutaneous coronary intervention.

Background: Previous research has shown that African-Americans, patients without insurance, and those with government-sponsored insurance are less likely to be referred for invasive cardiovascular procedures. We therefore sought to compare the impact of race and insurance type upon the use of drug-eluting stents (DES).

Methods: Patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with stenting from January 2008 to December 2012 at Los Angeles County Hospital and Keck Hospital of USC were retrospectively analyzed.

Mycobacterial Esx-3 requires multiple components for iron acquisition.

ABSTRACT The type VII secretion systems are conserved across mycobacterial species and in many Gram-positive bacteria. While the well-characterized Esx-1 pathway is required for the virulence of pathogenic mycobacteria and conjugation in the model organism Mycobacterium smegmatis, Esx-3 contributes to mycobactin-mediated iron acquisition in these bacteria. Here we show that several Esx-3 components are individually required for function under low-iron conditions but that at least one, the membrane-bound protease MycP3 of M.

Impact of obesity and weight loss on cardiac performance and morphology in adults.

Obesity, particularly severe obesity is capable of producing hemodynamic alterations that predispose to changes in cardiac morphology and ventricular function. These include increased cardiac output, left ventricular hypertrophy and diastolic and systolic dysfunction of both ventricles. Facilitated by co-morbidities such as hypertension, the sleep apnea/obesity hypoventilation syndrome, and possibly certain neurohormonal and metabolic alterations, these abnormalities may predispose to left and right heart failure, a disorder known as obesity cardiomyopathy.

Bioavailability of iodine in the UK-Peak District environment and its human bioaccessibility: an assessment of the causes of historical goitre in this area.

Iodine is an essential micronutrient for human health. Its deficiency causes a number of functional and developmental abnormalities such as goitre. The limestone region of Derbyshire, UK was goitre-endemic until it declined from the 1930s and the reason for this has escaped a conclusive explanation.

Improving hospital weekend handover: a user-centered, standardised approach.

Clinical Handover remains one of the most perilous procedures in medicine (1). Weekend handover has emerged as a key area of concern with high variability in handover processes across hospitals (1,2,4, 5-10). Studying weekend handover processes within medicine at an acute teaching hospital revealed huge variability in documented content and structure.

Computer navigation experience in hip resurfacing improves femoral component alignment using a conventional jig.

Background: The use of computer navigation has been shown to improve the accuracy of femoral component placement compared to conventional instrumentation in hip resurfacing. Whether exposure to computer navigation improves accuracy when the procedure is subsequently performed with conventional instrumentation without navigation has not been explored. We examined whether femoral component alignment utilizing a conventional jig improves following experience with the use of imageless computer navigation for hip resurfacing.

Complicated alcohol withdrawal presenting as self mutilation.

Self-mutilation has been defined as deliberate self injury to body tissue without the intent to die. There has been an association between substance abuse and self mutilation. Alcoholic hallucinosis is usually in auditory modality and regarded as harmless.

Increased expression of the receptor for advanced glycation end-products in human peripheral neuropathies.

Background: Diabetic neuropathy and idiopathic neuropathy are among the most prevalent neuropathies in human patients. The molecular mechanism underlying pathological changes observed in the affected nerve remains unclear but one candidate molecule, the receptor for advanced glycation end-products (RAGE), has recently gained attention as a potential contributor to neuropathy. Our previous studies revealed that RAGE expression is higher in porcine and murine diabetic nerve, contributing to the inflammatory mechanisms leading to diabetic neuropathy.

Lomotil (diphenoxylate) dependence in India.

Background: Lomotil (diphenoxylate atropine combination) has been in use as an antidiarrhoeal agent. Due to presence of opioid (diphenoxylate), there are chances of abuse. The reports of abuse of lomotil have been few in published literature.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis type VII secreted effector EsxH targets host ESCRT to impair trafficking.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) disrupts anti-microbial pathways of macrophages, cells that normally kill bacteria. Over 40 years ago, D'Arcy Hart showed that Mtb avoids delivery to lysosomes, but the molecular mechanisms that allow Mtb to elude lysosomal degradation are poorly understood. Specialized secretion systems are often used by bacterial pathogens to translocate effectors that target the host, and Mtb encodes type VII secretion systems (TSSSs) that enable mycobacteria to secrete proteins across their complex cell envelope; however, their cellular targets are unknown.