Clinical outcomes and lessons learned with aortic valve repair in 508 patients.

Background And Aim Of The Study: Aortic valve repair is an attractive alternative to valve replacement. Herein is presented the authors' single-center experience and lessons learned from 508 patients undergoing AVR, in three different groups.

Methods: Between 1993 and 2010, a total of 508 patients (148 females, 360 males; mean age 54 ± 17 years) underwent aortic valve repair.

A retrospective study of nurse-assisted propofol sedation in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis undergoing percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy.

Background: Percutaneous endscopic gastrostomy (PEG) placement is standard in the care of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) unable to maintain adequate oral nutrition. This has been performed using conscious sedation with narcotics/benzodiazepines. However, recent studies suggest that propofol sedation is superior for other endoscopic procedures.

Sensitization assays: monocyte-derived dendritic cells versus a monocytic cell line (THP-1).

Dendritic cells (DCs) play a critical role in the skin sensitization process of contact allergens. Many efforts have been made to develop in vitro sensitization tests that employ DCs, but more recently protocols were introduced that use cell lines other than DCs. The potential of the cell line THP-1 compared to monocyte-derived DCs (MoDCs) was evaluated using a known potent sensitizer 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB) and the terpenoid ascaridol (1,4-epodioxy-p-menth-2-ene), an ingredient present in oxidized tea tree oil.

Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt: midterm clinical and angiographic follow-up.

Purpose: To determine the impact of Child class and indication for transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) placement on patient survival and reintervention rate.

Materials And Methods: Metal stents were used to successfully create single shunts in 63 patients during a 3-year period. Angioplasty and repeated stent placement were used to maintain shunt patency, and patients were followed up clinically and angiographically.

Endoscopic balloon dilation for ulcer-induced gastric outlet obstruction.

Objective: To determine the safety and efficacy of endoscopic balloon dilation for ulcer-induced gastric outlet strictures.

Methods: Review of the cumulative experience from two institutions involving 30 patients who underwent endoscopic balloon dilation for peptic ulcer-induced gastric outlet obstruction. Follow-up was by standardized interview at a mean of 15 months (range 4-28 months).

Effects of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 on proliferation and differentiation of Caco-2 cells.

The effect of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 [1,25-(OH)2D3], or calcitriol, on the proliferation and differentiation of Caco-2 cells was studied. Vitamin D receptor mRNA was detected in both pre- and postconfluent cells, and its abundance was unchanged with time and in response to calcitriol. 1,25-(OH)2D3-binding activity increased during differentiation, but there was no difference in binding between 1,25-(OH)2D3-treated and control cells.

Caco-2 cell transfection by rat intestinal alkaline phosphatase cDNA increases surfactant-like particles.

The rat enterocyte produces a particle with surfactant-like properties (including a whorled appearance, enrichment for dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine, and ability to lower surface tension) that also is enriched for intestinal alkaline phosphatase. Human Caco-2 cells grown on polycarbonate filters were utilized to study the secretion of these particles and exhibited whorls and strands of unilamellar membranes, particularly concentrated at the apical pole or near junctional complexes. Concentrated culture medium from these cells separated on continuous NaBr gradients revealed a fraction at density = 1.

Differential regulation of mRNAs encoding for rat intestinal alkaline phosphatase.

A cDNA probe encoding the entire structural region of the 62-kDa rat intestinal alkaline phosphatase from amino acid residues 1 to 531 detected multiple mRNA species (3.0, 2.7, and 2.

Properties of rat and mouse beta-glucuronidase mRNA and cDNA, including evidence for sequence polymorphism and genetic regulation of mRNA levels.

cDNA clones containing partial sequences for beta-glucuronidase (beta G) were constructed from rat preputial gland RNA and identified by their ability to selectively hybridize beta G mRNA. One such rat clone was used to isolate several cross-hybridizing clones from a mouse-cDNA library prepared from kidney RNA from androgen-treated animals. Together, the set of mouse clones spans about 2.

Impact of vacuum aspiration abortion on future childbearing: a review.

Ever since induced abortion was legalized in the United States, there has been a running controversy over whether induced abortion affects subsequent childbearing; for example, it has been claimed that women who terminate a pregnancy are at a greater risk of miscarrying a subsequent pregnancy or of having a low-birth-weight baby. Ten studies of the later impact of first-trimester induced abortion by vacuum aspiration (the dominant method in the United States) are examined here; they find that compared with women who carry their first pregnancy to term, women whose first pregnancy ends in induced abortion have no greater risk of bearing low-birth-weight babies, delivering prematurely or suffering spontaneous abortions in subsequent pregnancies. However, these studies also show that induced abortion of a woman's first pregnancy does not have the protective effect on her first live birth that carrying a first birth to term has on later deliveries.

Repeat abortion in the United States: new insights.

The increasing numbers and proportions of repeat abortions in the United States, including higher order repeat abortions, can be adequately explained by the increasing numbers of women at risk and the heterogeneity of the population in regard to the need for and utilization of abortion services. The same factors, rather than a deterioration of contraceptive practice following abortion, explain the higher levels of repeat abortion rates compared with first abortion rates.

Race-specific patterns of abortion use by American teenagers.

Between 1972 and 1978, as legal abortion became more widely available nationally, abortion rates (abortions per 1,000 women) and ratios (abortions per 1,000 live births) increased for all American teenagers; from 1972 to 1975, the rates and ratios for teenagers for Black and other races increased faster than those for White teenagers. For all seven years, abortion rates were higher for teenagers of Black and other races than for white teenagers. This reflected both higher proportions of sexually active teenagers of Black and other races and a greater risk of pregnancy in these teenagers compared with White teenagers.

Mannose-specific endocytosis receptor of alveolar macrophages: demonstration of two functionally distinct intracellular pools of receptor and their roles in receptor recycling.

Receptor-mediated endocytosis of rat preputial beta-glucuronidase and the glycoconjugate mannose-BSA by rat alveolar macrophages is inhibited by chloroquine and ammonium chloride. We have previously reported that these drugs cause a loss of cell surface binding activity and that they do not inhibit internalization of receptor ligand complexes when incubated with cells at 37 degrees C. In this report we more clearly delineate the intracellular site of weak base inhibition of receptor recycling and the mechanism of that inhibition.

Abortion in the United States, 1977-1978.

There were 1.32 million legal abortions in the United States in 1977 and a projected 1.37 million in 1978, an increase of four percent between 1977 and 1978 compared with one of 12 percent between 1976 and 1977.