Myocardial bridges of the coronary arteries in the human fetal heart.

During the last century, many investigators reported on myocardial bridges in the adult human heart. In the present study, 39 human fetal hearts (the mean gestastional age was 30 weeks) were studied for myocardial bridging, and the results were correlated with adult data. Among the 39 (27 male and 12 female) fetal hearts studied, 26 bridges were observed on 18 fetal hearts (46.

Role of the nitric oxide pathway in ischemia-reperfusion injury in isolated perfused guinea pig lungs.

We examined the role of the nitric oxide (NO) pathway on ischemia-reperfusion injury via the use of isolated perfused guinea pig lungs. We administered both L-Arginine and N-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) to the lungs in or after 3 h of ischemia. We observed pulmonary artery pressures as well as tissue and perfusate malondialdehyde (MDA) and glutathione (GSH) levels.

Acinar cell ultrastructure after taurine treatment in rat acute necrotizing pancreatitis.

Objective: To evaluate the organelle-based changes in acinar cells in experimental acute necrotizing pancreatitis (ANP) after taurine treatment and the association of electron microscopic findings with histopathological changes and oxidative stress markers.

Methods: The study was performed in February 2005 at Gulhane School of Medicine and Hecettepe University, Turkey. Forty-five rats were divided into 3 groups.

Autoimmune myasthenia gravis after coronary artery bypass surgery.

Myasthenia gravis is the most common disorder of neuromuscular transmission and is a heterogeneous disorder that is generally autoimmune, which is caused by an auto-antibody to the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. We present a rare case of myasthenia gravis that occurred 8 weeks after a coronary artery bypass grafting operation. A 64-year-old man with multivessel coronary artery disease underwent myocardial revascularization.

Hyperbaric oxygen-induced changes in bacterial translocation and acinar ultrastructure in rat acute necrotizing pancreatitis.

Background: We aimed to investigate the effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy on bacterial translocation and acinar cell ultrastructure in a rat model of acute necrotizing pancreatitis.

Methods: Forty-eight male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into three groups. Acute pancreatitis was induced in groups II and III.

Double right coronary artery; fistula and atherosclerosis: rare combination.

Combination of the primary congenital coronary artery anomalies, fistula and atherosclerosis rarely occur. We report a 50-year-old male who presented with severe chest pain, for which he underwent a coronary angiography. Injection into the right coronary artery (RCA) demonstrated a double RCA running very closely together in the atrioventricular groove.

Quadricuspid aortic valve: a chance for repair.

Quadricuspid aortic valve is an uncommon congenital anomaly that often causes aortic regurgitation in adulthood, necessitating valve replacement. A 54-year-old woman presented with symptoms and signs of aortic regurgitation, but during surgery a quadricuspid aortic valve was identified. The abnormal cusp was fibrotic, short, thick, and fenestrated.

Magnesium decreases cardiac injury in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery.

Background: The calcium-channel blocking effect of magnesium might have protective effects in patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass surgery. We assessed the effects of magnesium on hearts undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery with intermittent warm blood hyperkalemic cardioplegia in the antegrade fashion.

Patients And Methods: Twenty patients undergoing coronary bypass surgery were randomly divided into two groups, a control group who received intermittent antegrade warm blood hyperkalemic cardioplegia for myocardial protection, and a study group who received the same solution with the addition of magnesium to the cardioplegia.

The effect of taurine treatment on oxidative stress in experimental liver fibrosis.

Oxidative stress is important in pathogenesis of liver fibrosis, which is the result of deposition of excessive ECM proteins produced by activated hepatic stellate cells (HSCs). Reducing reactive oxygen species (ROS) production decreases collagen accumulation in liver. We investigated the benefits of antioxidant therapy in liver fibrosis and its association with HSC apoptosis.

Is late antibiotic prophylaxis effective in the prevention of secondary pancreatic infection?

Background: Secondary infection of the inflamed pancreas is the principal cause of death after severe acute pancreatitis (AP). Although patients are not always managed early in the course of AP in clinical practice, prophylactic antibiotics that were used in experimental studies in rats were always initiated early after induction of pancreatitis. The effectiveness of antibiotics initiated later is unknown.

The effect of antibiotic and probiotic combination therapy on secondary pancreatic infections and oxidative stress parameters in experimental acute necrotizing pancreatitis.

Introduction: Ciprofloxacin and meropenem have effects on intestinal bacteria that are responsible for pancreatic infection, and on the basis of recent data it has been argued that probiotics, especially those used in the food industry, could improve efforts to prevent and treat secondary pancreatic infections by inhibiting bacterial translocation.

Aims: To evaluate the effects of probiotic treatment alone or in combination with early administration of two different antibiotics on serum amylase, pancreatic histopathology, bacterial translocation, and oxidative markers.

Methodology: Acute pancreatitis was induced in rats with 3% sodium taurocholate (1 mL/kg intraductally), except in group VI (sham group).

Examination of the variations of lateral femoral cutaneous nerves: report of two cases.

The origins, courses and relations of lateral femoral cutaneous nerves (LFCNs) were examined bilaterally in 28 cadavers, and the variations were observed in two. On the right side of one cadaver, the ventral rami of the first and second lumbar spinal nerves were united and then this nerve was divided into four branches. From medial to lateral, these branches were the obturator nerve, the femoral nerve, the medially located LFCN and the laterally located LFCN.

Bicuspid aortic valve.

The bicuspid aortic valve is a common congenital cardiac anomaly, having an incidence in the general population of 0.9% to 2.0% and a frequency of 54% in all patients aged >15 years with valvular aortic stenosis.

MR imaging determination of the normal level of conus medullaris.

The location of conus medullaris according to age and sex was retrospectively evaluated with a 0.5-T magnetic resonance (MR) imaging system. A total of 639 subjects without any conspicuous spinal canal pathology on the lumbar MR imaging examination were selected.

Serous fluid leakage without seroma after aortobifemora bypass operation.

Perigraft seroma and serous fluid leakage is an uncommon clinicopathologic entity. Serous leaks and/or seroma formation from dacron grafts have been reported in peripheral arterial anastomoses. We present a case of serous fluid leakage without seroma which developed after aorto-bifemoral and femoro-popliteal bypass.