Thoracic Ultrasound: Technique, Applications, and Interpretation.

Thoracic ultrasound is used at the bedside in emergency and critical care settings. Advantages of ultrasound include rapid real-time, low-cost, diagnostic information that can direct patient care without the use of ionizing radiation. We describe methods on how to perform lung ultrasound, with the intent to educate the radiologist who might otherwise be relatively unfamiliar with thoracic sonography.

Progression of abdominal aortic aneurysm towards rupture: refining clinical risk assessment using a fully coupled fluid-structure interaction method.

Rupture of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is associated with high mortality rates. Risk of rupture is multi-factorial involving AAA geometric configuration, vessel tortuosity, and the presence of intraluminal pathology. Fluid structure interaction (FSI) simulations were conducted in patient based computed tomography scans reconstructed geometries in order to monitor aneurysmal disease progression from normal aortas to non-ruptured and contained ruptured AAA (rAAA), and the AAA risk of rupture was assessed.

Biomechanical factors in coronary vulnerable plaque risk of rupture: intravascular ultrasound-based patient-specific fluid-structure interaction studies.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to elucidate the mechanisms and underlying biomechanical factors that may play a role in the risk of rupture of vulnerable plaques (VPs) by studying patient-based geometries of coronary arteries reconstructed from intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging utilizing fluid-structure interaction (FSI) numerical simulations.

Background: According to recent estimates, coronary artery disease is responsible for one in six deaths in the USA, and causes about one million heart attacks each year. Among these, the rupture of coronary VPs followed by luminal blockage is widely recognized as a major cause of sudden heart attacks; most importantly, the patients may appear as asymptomatic under routine screening before the occurrence of the index event.

Patient based abdominal aortic aneurysm rupture risk prediction combining clinical visualizing modalities with fluid structure interaction numerical simulations.

Fluid structure interaction (FSI) simulations of patient-specific fusiform non-ruptured and contained ruptured Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) geometries were conducted. The goals were: (1) to test the ability of our FSI methodology to predict the location of rupture, by correlating the high wall stress regions with the rupture location, (2) estimate the state of the pathological condition by calculating the ruptured potential index (RPI) of the AAA and (3) predict the disease progression by comparing healthy and pathological aortas.

Patient-based abdominal aortic aneurysm rupture risk prediction with fluid structure interaction modeling.

Elective repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is warranted when the risk of rupture exceeds that of surgery, and is mostly based on the AAA size as a crude rupture predictor. A methodology based on biomechanical considerations for a reliable patient-specific prediction of AAA risk of rupture is presented. Fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulations conducted in models reconstructed from CT scans of patients who had contained ruptured AAA (rAAA) predicted the rupture location based on mapping of the stresses developing within the aneurysmal wall, additionally showing that a smaller rAAA presented a higher rupture risk.

Morphine modulation of the ubiquitin-proteasome complex is neuroprotective.

Background: Over the past several decades, there is a growing need for the development of neuroprotective compounds, e.g, those that can prevent neural death. It was proposed that nitric oxide (NO), when induced by morphine, would produce neuroprotection in a human neuroblastoma cell line when tested concomitantly with compounds that produce intracellular oxidative stress and neuroinflammation.