Air and its Sonographic Appearance: Understanding the Artifacts.

Background: Although air has traditionally been considered a barrier to sonographic imaging, when encountered in unusual settings it can serve as an important indicator of various pathologic states as well. Clinician recognition and thorough understanding of the characteristic pattern of artifacts generated by air are critical for making a number of important diagnoses.

Case Series: We present five emergency department cases in which air was visualized in a pathologic location.

Reliability, Laterality and the Effect of Respiration on the Measured Corrected Flow Time of the Carotid Arteries.

Background: Corrected flow time (FTc) measured via sonography of the carotid artery is a novel method that has shown promising results for predicting fluid responsiveness in shock states. It is a rapid and noninvasive examination that can be taught to emergency physicians with ease. However, its reliability has not been assessed, and the effects of several variables, including respiration and side of evaluation, are unclear.

Chemoprevention of prostate cancer with lycopene in the TRAMP model.

Background: Dietary lycopene combined with other constituents from whole tomatoes was previously found to have greater chemopreventive effects against prostate cancer as compared to pure lycopene provided in a beadlet formulation. We hypothesized that tomato paste would have greater chemopreventive effects in transgenic adenocarcinoma of the mouse prostate (TRAMP) mice relative to equivalent lycopene doses provided from lycopene beadlets.

Methods: Fifty-nine TRAMP mice were randomized to a control diet or to diets providing 28 mg lycopene per kg diet from tomato paste (TP) or from lycopene beadlet (LB), and sacrificed at 20 weeks.

Bioprosthetic mitral valve thrombosis less than one year after replacement and an ablative MAZE procedure: a case report.

Occurrence of bioprosthetic valve thrombosis less than a year after replacement is very uncommon. Here, we describe a case of a 57 year old male, who presented 10 months after receiving a bioprosthetic mitral valve replacement with a two week history of dyspnea on exertion, worsening orthopnea and decreased exercise tolerance. Echocardiography revealed severe mitral regurgitation (MR), thrombosis of the posterior mitral leaflet, left atrial (LA) mural thrombus and a depressed left ventricular ejection fraction of twenty-five percent.

Knowledge of modifiable risk factors of Coronary Atherosclerotic Heart Disease (CASHD) among a sample in India.

Background: The prevalence of Coronary Atherosclerotic Heart Disease (CASHD) is increasing in India. Several modifiable risk factors contribute directly to this disease burden. Public knowledge of such risk factors among the urban Indian population is largely unknown.

Utilizing video on myocardial infarction as a health educational intervention in patient waiting areas of the developing world: A study at the emergency department of a major tertiary care hospital in India.

Objective: To study the effect of health educational video instruction on increasing patients' knowledge in a hospital waiting area of a developing country.

Methods: An educational video on signs, symptoms, and risk factors of myocardial infarction (MI) was played in an Emergency Department (ED) patient waiting area of an urban tertiary care hospital in India. Participants (n = 217) were randomly assigned to two groups: an intervention group that viewed the MI video (n = 111) and a control group that did not view the video (n = 106).

Effect of low-fat diet on development of prostate cancer and Akt phosphorylation in the Hi-Myc transgenic mouse model.

This study evaluated the effect of dietary fat on prostate cancer development by using the Hi-Myc mouse transgenic prostate cancer model. Hi-Myc mice develop murine prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (mPIN) as early as 2 to 4 weeks and invasive adenocarcinoma between 6 and 9 months due to the overexpression of human c-Myc in the mouse prostate. Three-week-old male Hi-Myc mice were placed on high-fat (HF; 42% Kcal) or low-fat (LF; 12% Kcal) diets, and equal caloric intake was maintained until euthanasia at 7 months.