External Support for Saphenous Vein Grafts in Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Intimal hyperplasia and subsequent saphenous vein graft failure may have significant adverse clinical effects in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery. External support of saphenous vein grafts has the potential to prevent vein graft dilation and hence slow the rate of intimal hyperplasia and increase long-term vein patency.

Objective: To determine efficacy, as measured by intimal hyperplasia, and safety of an external saphenous vein graft support device in patients undergoing a coronary bypass graft procedure.

Rationale and design of a randomized trial evaluating an external support device for saphenous vein coronary grafts.

Background: Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is the most common revascularization approach for the treatment of multi-vessel coronary artery disease. While the internal mammary artery is nearly universally used to bypass the left anterior descending coronary artery, autologous saphenous vein grafts (SVGs) are still the most frequently used conduits to grafts the remaining coronary artery targets. Long-term failure of these grafts, however, continues to limit the benefits of surgery.

OCT imaging of aorto-coronary vein graft pathology modified by external stenting: 1-year post-surgery.

Aims: The Venous External Support Trial (VEST) evaluated whether a novel external stent attenuated saphenous vein graft (SVG) disease assessed with intravascular ultrasound 1 year following coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. This sub-study assessed SVGs with and without external stenting using optical coherence tomography (OCT). The aim of this study was to accurately compare quantitative and qualitative features of SVGs with and without a novel external stent using OCT.

Flow patterns in externally stented saphenous vein grafts and development of intimal hyperplasia.

Background: Low and oscillatory wall shear stress promotes endothelial dysfunction and vascular disease. The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of an external stent on hemodynamic flow parameters in saphenous vein grafts (SVGs) and their correlation with the development of intimal hyperplasia.

Methods: We performed post hoc computational fluid dynamics analysis of the randomized Venous External Support Trial, in which angiography and intravascular ultrasound data were available for 29 patients, 1 year after coronary artery bypass grafting.

A Randomized Trial of External Stenting for Saphenous Vein Grafts in Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting.

Background: External stents inhibit saphenous vein graft (SVG) intimal hyperplasia in animal studies. We investigated whether external stenting inhibits SVG diffuse intimal hyperplasia 1 year after coronary artery bypass graft surgery.

Methods: Thirty patients with multivessel disease undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery were enrolled.

Numerical analysis of Venous External Scaffolding Technology for Saphenous Vein Grafts.

This paper presents a method for analyzing and comparing numerically Saphenous Vein Grafts (SVGs) following Coronary Artery Bypass Graft surgery (CABG). The method analyses the flow dynamics inside vein grafts with and without supporting using Venous External Scaffolding Technology (VEST). The numerical method uses patients׳ specific computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods to characterize the relevant hemodynamic parameters of patients׳ SVGs.

Psychologic consequences of facial dermatoses.

The attractiveness of the human body has always been an important issue in the fields of sociology, psychology, and psychiatry and also in the field of dermatology. In psychodermatology, one often discovers how all these fields intermingle to produce elaborate situations and extreme human difficulties. Perfect skin is widely adored in literature, poetry, and biblical texts, as well as in advertisements, movies, and television.

Psychologic factors in the development of facial dermatoses.

In medical literature, as well as in daily practice, some common facial dermatoses are considered to be influenced or triggered by emotional factors. The main damager is stress, but depression and anxiety may play a role, among other factors. Some patients may experience a vicious cycle: Their facial dermatosis is triggered or worsened by stress, and in turn, the exacerbation itself is a major stressogenic stimulus.

Periorbital (eyelid) dermatides.

Physicians in various specialties-and dermatologists in particular-frequently encounter various forms of inflammation of the eyelids and of the anterior surface of the eye. Distinguishing the cause of itchy, painful, red, edematous eyelids is often difficult. Because the uppermost layer of the eyelids is part of the skin that wraps the entire body, almost every skin disease in the textbook can affect the periorbital area as well.

Psychological factors in skin diseases: stress and skin: facts and controversies.

Psychological stress (PS) has long been related to many common skin diseases and conditions, thought to be the cause of their onset or aggravation. Although clinical experience is often in concordance with this notion, apparently scientific proof can sometimes be challenging rather than straight forward. Although many data have been published, it appears that not enough good statistical evidence exists to support them.

Patch testing: facts and controversies.

The German dermatologist, Josef Jadassohn (1863-1936), first presented the results of his innovative patch-testing technique in 1895. The safety and efficacy of this diagnostic tool has stood the test of time and is still the gold standard for the diagnosis of allergic contact dermatitis (ACD). Since its discovery, much effort has been put into standardization and optimization of allergens, vehicles, and concentrations of patch-test materials; in procedures of its application; and in reading and scoring of test reactions--all contributing to the development of an accurate, reliable, and safe test with a high reproducibility of its results.

Contact dermatitis: facts and controversies.

The history of contact dermatitis (CD) is inseparable from the history of the patch test, and the patch test is inseparable from the pioneer in the field, Josef Jadassohn (1860-1936). Despite the fact that we have been diagnosing, treating, and investigating the condition for more than 100 years, there are still many unsolved questions and controversies, which show no signs of coming to an end in the foreseeable future. This contribution reviews and highlights some of the disagreements and discrepancies associated with CD.

Expandable external support device to improve Saphenous Vein Graft Patency after CABG.

Objectives: Low patency rates of saphenous vein grafts remain a major predicament in surgical revascularization. We examined a novel expandable external support device designed to mitigate causative factors for early and late graft failure.

Methods: For this study, fourteen adult sheep underwent cardiac revascularization using two vein grafts for each; one to the LAD and the other to the obtuse marginal artery.

Core decompression and alendronate treatment of the osteonecrotic rat femoral head: computer-assisted analysis.

Femoral head avascular necrosis is a process leading to femoral head deformity and osteoarthritic changes in the hip joint. Alendronate slows down bone resorption and remodelling in rats, while core decompression hastens the healing processes. We evaluated the influence of daily alendronate treatment on the rat femoral head shape after surgical osteonecrosis with core decompression, compared with controls.

Abnormal epidermal barrier in the pathogenesis of psoriasis.

Almost 2 decades ago, Williams and Elias suggested a unifying concept for the pathogenesis of disorders of cornification, according to which the integrity of the epidermal barrier and its effective function is an important factor in the regulation of epidermal DNA synthesis. Interference with the barrier integrity or function will result in epidermal hyperplasia and may be the primary event leading to hyperproliferative skin diseases, such as psoriasis. We have analyzed alterations to several structures of the epidermal barrier that might be responsible for barrier dysfunction and thus lead to hyperproliferation of the epidermis in an attempt to repair the barrier and, as a result, might be inducers of psoriasis.

Psychological stress and epidermal barrier function.

The skin is the organ that acts as a barrier between the outer and inner environments of the body. It is thus exposed not only to a wide variety of physical, chemical, and thermal insults from the outside world but also to inner endogenous stimuli. Stress, once an abstract psychologic phenomenon, has taken research's center stage in recent years.

A psychodermatology clinic: the concept, the format, and our observations from Israel.

The connection between the brain and the skin is more than a physiologic fact. Skin conditions can impose great effects on every field in the patients' lives. Reciprocally, skin diseases can be evoked by psychological problems.

[A new psycho-dermatology clinic in Israel: our first year experience].

Psychodermatology involves the interrelationships between the skin and the mind, especially when considering the formation and evolution of certain common skin conditions. It appears that 30-40% of dermatology patients suffer from certain psychological problems as defined by the ICD-10, in a way that influences their disease severity and progression, as well as their quality of Life. Treatment of such cases requires a multi-disciplinary approach and should involve both a dermatologist and a mental health specialist working together In this article, the authors summarize the preliminary experience of the first year of the only psychodermatology clinic in Israel in several decades, work methods and patients' characteristics and preliminary conclusions.

Cutaneous manifestations of pituitary gland diseases.

The pituitary gland is also known as the "master" gland of the endocrine system, because it controls the functions of the other endocrine glands. From its lofty position in the sella turcica it sends signals to the thyroid gland, adrenal glands, ovaries and testes. It modulates the production of a variety of hormones that have dramatic effect on metabolism, blood pressure, sexuality, reproduction, growth, milk production and other vital body functions and therefore are essential for homeostasis.

Skin care products and subtle data manipulation.

The dermatologists of today need to master the skills to help their patients in choosing skin care products. As physicians and scientists, we are naturally inclined to trust sophisticated and objectively derived data that are published in scientific, peer-reviewed journals and are presented to us in the form of numbers, tables, and graphs. The question that should be asked is whether a product that scored well in sophisticated tests is really superior and more suitable to the needs of our patients? Or, how far can we trust the data in scientific publications? There is no generally accepted methodology for unbiased evaluation of the efficacy and performance of skin care products.

Autoinoculation and dissemination are two different forms of herpes virus spread.

Autoinoculation and dissemination (or Kaposi's varicelliform eruption or eczema herpeticum) of herpetic lesions are two forms of viral spread, and it is essential to differentiate between the two. Presented are typical examples of the two forms of viral spread.

Smoking can be good for you.

Smoking is without doubt one of the greatest causes of avoidable illness and death in the modern world. Most well known is the relationship between smoking and numerous cancers, cerebrovascular and cardiovascular disease. Smoking and most especially nicotine, are, however, sometimes beneficial in certain diseases, including Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, allergic alveolitis, nausea and vomiting of pregnancy, pre-eclampsia, fibroids, carcinoma of body of uterus, ulcerative colitis, pyoderma gangrenosum, aphthous stomatitis and ulceration, pemphigus, herpes simplex and acne.