Commensal myeloid crosstalk in neonatal skin regulates long-term cutaneous type 17 inflammation.

Early life microbe-immune interactions at barrier surfaces have lasting impacts on the trajectory towards health versus disease. Monocytes, macrophages and dendritic cells are primary sentinels in barrier tissues, yet the salient contributions of commensal-myeloid crosstalk during tissue development remain poorly understood. Here, we identify that commensal microbes facilitate accumulation of a population of monocytes in neonatal skin.

Calcium Signaling in MR1-Dependent Antigen Presentation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

MR1 is a ubiquitously expressed MHC-Ib molecule that presents microbial metabolites to MR1-restricted T cells, but there are differences in the antigen presentation pathway of an intracellular microbe compared to exogenous antigen. We have shown the importance of endosomal trafficking proteins in MR1-dependent presentation of (Mtb). Two pore channels (TPCs) are endosomal calcium channels that regulate endosomal trafficking.

Fentanyl-Induced Rigid Chest Syndrome in Critically Ill Patients.

Background: Opioid induced chest wall rigidity was first described in the early 1950s during surgical anesthesia and has often been referred to as fentanyl induced rigid chest syndrome (FIRCS). It has most commonly been described in the setting of procedural sedation and bronchoscopy, characterized by pronounced abdominal and thoracic rigidity, asynchronous ventilation, and respiratory failure. FIRCS has been infrequently described in the setting of continuous analgesia in critically ill adult patients.

Nocturnal blood pressure and nocturnal blood pressure fluctuations: the effect of short-term CPAP therapy and their association with the severity of obstructive sleep apnea.

Study Objectives: We determined the relationship of cardiovascular risk factors, cardiovascular diseases, nocturnal blood pressure (NBP), and NBP fluctuations (NBPFs) with the severity of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). We also investigated the effect of short-term continuous positive airway pressure therapy on NBP parameters.

Methods: This retrospective study included 548 patients from our cardiac clinic with suspected OSA.

Effect of CPAP therapy on nocturnal blood pressure fluctuations, nocturnal blood pressure, and arterial stiffness in patients with coexisting cardiovascular diseases and obstructive sleep apnea.

Purpose: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) can induce dramatic nocturnal blood pressure fluctuations (NBPFs) and can be associated with nocturnal hypertension and arterial stiffness. We investigated the effect of short- and long-term continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy on NBPFs, nocturnal blood pressure (BP), and arterial stiffness in patients with coexisting cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and OSA (CVD/OSA).

Methods: Of 86 patients with CVD, 58 also had OSA, while 28 without OSA served as controls.

Monoclonal Antibodies against Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Acquire an Ability To Kill Tumor Cells through Complement Activation by Mutations That Selectively Facilitate the Hexamerization of IgG on Opsonized Cells.

Triggering of the complement cascade induces tumor cell lysis via complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC) and attracts and activates cytotoxic cells. It therefore represents an attractive mechanism for mAb in cancer immunotherapy development. The classical complement pathway is initiated by IgG molecules that have assembled into ordered hexamers after binding their Ag on the tumor cell surface.

Transpulmonary contrast echocardiography: effects on delineation of endocardial border, assessment of wall motion and interobserver variability in stress echocardiograms of limited image quality.

Background: A major limitation of stress echocardiography remains poor image quality.

Objective: To investigate the effects of transpulmonary contrast echocardiography (TCE) with BY 963 on endocardial border delineation, detectability of wall motion abnormalities and interobserver variability at rest and during dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE) in subjects with technically limited baseline echocardiograms.

Methods: BY 963 was administered intravenously to 36 patients (5 ml for parasternal LAX/SAX, 10 ml for apical four-chamber/two-chamber view) both at rest and at peak stress during DSE.

Diagnostic and prognostic value of serial dobutamine stress echocardiography for noninvasive assessment of cardiac allograft vasculopathy: a comparison with coronary angiography and intravascular ultrasound.

Background: Routine methods for surveillance of cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) are coronary angiography and intravascular ultrasound (IVUS). This study analyzed the diagnostic and prognostic value of dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE) for noninvasive assessment of CAV.

Methods And Results: In 109 heart transplant recipients, 333 DSEs were compared with 285 coronary angiograms and 199 IVUS analyses.

Functional and morphological findings in heart transplant recipients with a normal coronary angiogram: an analysis by dobutamine stress echocardiography, intracoronary Doppler and intravascular ultrasound.

Background: Coronary angiography is still the routine screening method for cardiac allograft vasculopathy in most transplant centers. This study was designed to analyze functional and morphologic changes in heart transplant recipients with normal angiographic findings.

Methods: Dobutamine stress echocardiography and intracoronary ultrasound were obtained in 56 patients with a normal coronary angiogram 41+/-31 months after heart transplantation.

[Perspectives of patients with terminal renal failure: quality of life and psychological adjustment before and in the first year after heart transplantation].

This prospective study was designed to compare quality of life, life satisfaction, and subjective ratings of health before and at variable time intervals after heart transplantation (HTx). 175 patients were included between February 1994 and December 1997. Every six months before and 1 1/2, 3, 6, and 12 months after HTx, they received the following standardized and validated questionnaires: German SF 36, heart failure and specific transplant symptom list, global quality of life assessment, Munich life quality dimension list, expected/experienced life changes after HTx.

[Quantitative dobutamine stress echocardiography in follow-up of heart transplantation: normal values and findings in patients with transplant vasculopathy].

Cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) remains a major problem after heart transplantation. This prospective study was performed to analyze the value of quantitative dobutamine stress echocardiography for the diagnosis of CAV compared with coronary angiography and intravascular ultrasound (IVUS). In 80 patients late (> or = 12 months) after cardiac transplantation, a total of 144 studies were evaluated.

Doppler analysis of pulmonary venous flow profiles in orthotopic heart transplant recipients: a comparison with mitral flow profiles and atrial function.

Previous Doppler studies of transmitral flow profiles in heart transplant recipients suggested left ventricular (LV) diastolic dysfunction. The influence of left atrial filling and emptying on mitral Doppler profiles in heart transplant recipients has not been studied systematically. In the present study, pulmonary venous flow profiles, mitral flow profiles, left atrial area change and mitral annulus motion were analyzed in 20 orthotopic heart transplant recipient and 20 control subjects by transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography and Doppler.

[Infectious thyroiditis as initial manifestation of embolizing endocarditis of the aortic valve].

History And Clinical Findings: A 47-year-old patient was admitted to hospital with fever (39.2 degrees C), weight loss and sore throat. The right thyroid area was painful on palpation.

Anatomic characteristics and valvular function of the transplanted heart: transthoracic versus transesophageal echocardiographic findings.

In orthotopic heart transplantation atrial size and geometry are altered, whereas ventricles and atrioventricular valves remain structurally unchanged. To analyze the anatomy and function of the transplanted heart, 20 heart transplant recipients, with a mean age of 46.0 +/- 11.

Accuracy of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in four exercise situations.

Although ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) is still considered in its investigational stage, the technique has become increasingly popular in recent years. The rationale for its utilization is its ability to continuously monitor blood pressure (BP) response to situational stressors occurring over the course of a 24-hour period which cannot be detected by casual measurements. In addition, ABPM eliminates the so-called white-coat auscultatory BP response.

[Long-term automatic blood pressure measurement in clinical management].

Blood pressure control in arterial hypertension, as has been shown in randomized studies in 43,000 patients, based on a reduction of diastolic blood pressure of 5.8 mm Hg associated with a 40% reduction in stroke, is of substantial prognostic importance. Cardiac events were reduced insignificantly by 9%.

[Personality psychological correlates of blood pressure behavior. Group comparison of hypertensive, exercise hypertensive and normotensive heart patients].

It has been well established that individuals with exercise hypertension are at risk of subsequently developing manifest hypertension at rest. In this regard, there is little data available on psychological aspects which may be related to this transition. Accordingly, this study was undertaken to determine whether persons with exercise hypertension and those with manifest hypertension differ in personality traits.

[Long-term behavior of exercise-induced hypertension in patients with myocardial infarction].

Blood pressure and clinical course in 83 heart infarction patients with exercise hypertension were compared after 7 years with a control group of infarction patients without exercise hypertension after 8 years. 62% of the exercise hypertension patients and 23% of the control group developed manifest hypertension. 11% of the exercise hypertension patients and 56% of the control group had normal blood pressure values.