Increased nitric oxide availability worsens the cardiac performance during early re-perfusion period in adult rats.

Objectives: Re-perfusion is the standard therapy for acute myocardial infarction, despite the associated pathologies that may contribute to irreversible myocardial injury. The present study aims to clarify the alterations in cardiac activities in response to experimental cardiac ischemic arrest followed by re-perfusion in isolated hearts perfused with nitric oxide (NO) donor, l-arginine, or NO inhibitor, Nω-Nitro-l-arginine methyl ester hydrochloride (l-NAME), to shed light on the possible role of NO in the re-perfusion process.

Methods: Hearts isolated from adult Wistar rats were studied on Langendorff preparation under basal conditions and during 30 min re-perfusion following 30 min of total global ischemia.

Applicability of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy in rapid identification of some Candida and dermatophyte species infections in humans.

Traditional systems of identifying yeasts and dermatophytes have many disadvantages. Preliminary data on a radically different approach based on optical spectroscopic techniques suggest that these techniques may offer some advantages. We conducted a trial to verify the practical applicability of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy in the identification of some yeast and dermatophyte species, in which samples from 50 patients with superficial fungal infections were cultured on Sabouraud dextrose agar with chloramphenicol and cycloheximide (actidione) and studied using FTIR microspectroscopy.