Use of an app-based exercise therapy program including cognitive-behavioral techniques for the management of intermittent claudication.

Objective: Clinical practice guidelines recommend supervised exercise therapy (SET) as first-line therapy for patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD) and intermittent claudication (IC). The Society for Vascular Surgery Appropriate Use Criteria for IC deems excercise therapy (ET) as appropriate for all patients with IC. However, compliance with recommendations for the use of ET is often poor owing to the lack of availability, patient travel requirements, and cost.

Telemedicine platforms and their use in the coronavirus disease-19 era to deliver comprehensive vascular care.

Implementation of telemedicine for patient encounters optimizes personal safety and allows for continuity of patient care. Embracing telehealth reduces the use of personal protective equipment and other resources consumed during in-person visits. The use of telehealth has increased to historic levels in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Septic Pulmonary Emboli From Peripheral Suppurative Thrombophlebitis: A Case Report and Literature Review.

Background:: We report the case of a 90-year old woman who presented with septic pulmonary emboli due to suppurative thrombophlebitis at an old peripheral intravenous site.

Methods:: After unsuccessful treatment with antibiotics, the patient was taken to the operating room for excision and drainage of the purulent superficial vein.

Results:: We review the literature and discuss the presentation, risk factors, treatment options, and complications of this often-overlooked disease entity.

Utilizing Smartphone-Based Machine Learning in Medical Monitor Data Collection: Seven Segment Digit Recognition.

Biometric measurements captured from medical devices, such as blood pressure gauges, glucose monitors, and weighing scales, are essential to tracking a patient's health. Trends in these measurements can accurately track diabetes, cardiovascular issues, and assist medication management for patients. Currently, patients record their results and date of measurement in a physical notebook.

A Cross-Sectional Study of Prominent US Mobile Health Applications: Evaluating the Current Landscape.

Mobile health (mHealth) could offer unprecedented opportunity to provide medical support closer to the users. We have selected some relevant criteria to describe 100 apps from Google Play store and Apple's App Store's top suggestions in medical category. These characteristics were compared based on the paid or free nature of the apps, the target users: consumers or healthcare professionals, and the platform: Android or iOS.

Use of a proactive duplex ultrasound protocol for hemodialysis access.

Objective: Arteriovenous fistula (AVF) creation is the preferred approach for hemodialysis access; however, the maturation of AVFs is known to be poor. We established a proactive early duplex ultrasound (DUS) surveillance protocol for evaluating AVFs before attempted access. This study determined the effect of this protocol related to improving AVF maturation.

TElmisartan in the management of abDominal aortic aneurYsm (TEDY): The study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Experimental studies suggest that angiotensin II plays a central role in the pathogenesis of abdominal aortic aneurysm. This trial aims to evaluate the efficacy of the angiotensin receptor blocker telmisartan in limiting the progression of abdominal aortic aneurysm.

Methods/design: Telmisartan in the management of abdominal aortic aneurysm (TEDY) is a multicentre, parallel-design, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial with an intention-to-treat analysis.

Regulation of reactive oxygen species by p53: implications for nitric oxide-mediated apoptosis.

Nitric oxide (NO) induces vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) apoptosis in part through activation of p53. Traditionally, p53 has been thought of as the gatekeeper, determining if a cell should undergo arrest and repair or apoptosis following exposure to DNA-damaging agents, depending on the severity of the damage. However, our laboratory previously demonstrated that NO induces apoptosis to a much greater extent in p53(-/-) compared with p53(+/+) VSMC.

Citric acid-based elastomers provide a biocompatible interface for vascular grafts.

Prosthetic vascular bypass grafting is associated with poor long-term patency rates. Herein, we report on the mid-term performance of expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) vascular grafts modified with a citric acid-based biodegradable elastomer. Through a spin-shearing method, ePTFE grafts were modified by mechanically coating a layer of poly(1,8 octanediol citrate) (POC) onto the luminal nodes and fibrils of the ePTFE.

Beneficial effect of a short-acting NO donor for the prevention of neointimal hyperplasia.

Nitric oxide (NO)-based therapies effectively inhibit neointimal hyperplasia in animal models of arterial injury and bypass grafting, but are not available clinically. We created a simple, effective, locally applied NO-eluting therapy to prevent restenosis after vascular procedures. We investigated the efficacy of perivascular delivery of two distinctly different diazeniumdiolate NO donors, 1-[2-(carboxylato)pyrrolidin-1-yl]diazen-1-ium-1,2-diolate (PROLI/NO) (short half-life) and diazeniumdiolated poly(acrylonitrile) (PAN/NO) (long half-life), in powder or gel form (30% poloxamer 407), at inhibiting neointimal hyperplasia using the rat carotid artery injury model.

A reproducible porcine ePTFE arterial bypass model for neointimal hyperplasia.

Background: Late failure of prosthetic vascular bypass grafting using expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) is secondary to the development of neointimal hyperplasia, most commonly at the distal anastomosis. To develop therapies that can improve upon current prosthetic vascular bypass grafting, a large animal model of prosthetic bypass grafting that results in reproducible neointimal hyperplasia is necessary.

Methods: We performed bilateral end-to-side carotid artery bypasses with 6 mm ePTFE in a porcine model (n = 11).

Differential gene expression between juvenile and adult dura mater: a window into what genes play a role in the regeneration of membranous bone.

Background: Although reossification of large calvarial defects is possible in children, adults lack this tissue engineering capacity. In this study, the authors compared the differences in gene expression between juvenile and adult dura mater using a mouse cDNA microarray with 42,000 unique elements.

Methods: Non-suture-associated parietal bone was harvested from 6-day-old and 60-day-old mice.

Abdominal aortic aneurysm-repair devices.

Traditional open aneurysm repair is associated with significant perioperative morbidity. The development of abdominal aneurysm-repair devices has provided a minimally invasive alternative to open repairs. The field of aneurysm-repair devices is burgeoning since the approval of the first device in 1999.

Differential transcriptional expression profiles of juvenile and adult calvarial bone.

Background: It has widely been observed that young children are capable of reossifying large calvarial defects, while adults lack this endogenous tissue-engineering capacity. The ability of juvenile animals to regenerate calvarial defects has been investigated in multiple animal models, including mice. In this study, the authors used cDNA microarrays to investigate the expression of osteogenesis-associated genes upstream and downstream of Runx2 in juvenile and adult mouse calvaria.

Bone morphogenetic protein 2 and retinoic acid accelerate in vivo bone formation, osteoclast recruitment, and bone turnover.

Reconstruction of craniofacial defects presents a substantial biomedical burden, and requires complex surgery. Interestingly, children after age 2 years and adults are unable to heal large skull defects. This nonhealing paradigm provides an excellent model system for craniofacial skeletal tissueengineering strategies.

Applications of a mouse model of calvarial healing: differences in regenerative abilities of juveniles and adults.

Young children are capable of healing large calvarial defects, whereas adults lack this endogenous osseous tissue-engineering capacity. Despite the important clinical implications, little is known about the molecular and cell biology underlying this differential ability. Traditionally, guinea pig, rabbit, and rat models have been used to study the orchestration of calvarial healing.

Mechanisms of murine cranial suture patency mediated by a dominant negative transforming growth factor-beta receptor adenovirus.

Using a physiologic model of mouse cranial suture fusion, the authors' laboratory has previously demonstrated that transforming growth factor (TGF)-betas appear to be more abundantly expressed in the suture complex of the fusing posterior frontal compared with the patent sagittal suture. Furthermore, the authors have shown that by blocking TGF-beta signaling with a replication-deficient adenovirus encoding a defective, dominant negative type II TGF-beta receptor (AdDN-TbetaRII), posterior frontal suture fusion was inhibited. In this study, the authors attempt to further elucidate the role of TGF-beta in cranial suture fusion by investigating possible mechanisms of AdDN-TbetaRII-mediated cranial suture patency using both an established organ culture model and a novel in vitro co-culture system that recapitulates the in vivo anatomic dura mater/cranial suture relationship.

In vitro murine posterior frontal suture fate is age-dependent: implications for cranial suture biology.

In CD-1 mice, the posterior frontal suture (analogous to the human metopic suture) fuses while all other cranial sutures remain patent. In an in vitro organ culture model, the authors previously demonstrated that posterior frontal sutures explanted immediately before the onset of suture fusion (at 25 days old) mimic in vivo physiologic fusion. In the first portion of this study, the authors defined how early in development the posterior frontal suture fuses in their tension-free, serum-free organ culture system by serially analyzing posterior frontal suture fusion from calvariae explanted at different stages of postnatal development.

Adipose-derived adult stromal cells heal critical-size mouse calvarial defects.

In adults and children over two years of age, large cranial defects do not reossify successfully, posing a substantial biomedical burden. The osteogenic potential of bone marrow stromal (BMS) cells has been documented. This study investigates the in vivo osteogenic capability of adipose-derived adult stromal (ADAS) cells, BMS cells, calvarial-derived osteoblasts and dura mater cells to heal critical-size mouse calvarial defects.

Postoperative rhabdomyolysis following laparoscopic gastric bypass in the morbidly obese.

Hypothesis: Laparoscopic approaches for weight reduction in the morbidly obese have become common with more than 50,000 bariatric surgical procedures being performed in 2001. The objective of this article is to raise awareness among surgeons of a new complication of rhabdomyolysis from this frequent procedure.

Design: Case series extracted from surgical database from January 2, 2001, through December 31, 2002.