The benefits of ultrasound-guided continuous sensory nerve blockade in the setting of burn injury: a case report of bilateral continuous superficial peroneal nerve blockade in a patient with severe sleep apnea.

The management of pain after burn injuries is a clinical challenge magnified in patients with significant comorbidities. Presently, burn pain is treated via a wide variety of modalities, including systemic pharmacotherapy and regional analgesia. Although the latter can provide effective pain control in patients with burn injuries, it is relatively underused.

Perioperative management of a patient with hereditary angioedema during off-pump coronary artery bypass graft surgery.

The case of a patient with hereditary angioedema (HAE), a rare, life-threatening disorder caused by reduced activity of the C1 esterase inhibitor, and requiring off-pump coronary artery bypass graft (OP-CABG) surgery, is presented. Perioperative management of patients with HAE who undergo complex cardiac surgical procedures are discussed, including an OP-CABG surgical approach to decrease complement activation, fresh-frozen plasma administration to increase C1 esterase inhibitor activity, and administration of reduced doses of heparin and protamine to minimize heparin-protamine complex formation.

Association between transforming growth factor-beta(1) and left ventricular mass and diameter in hypertensive patients.

Angiotensin II influences development of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) by stimulating cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, fibroblast proliferation, and collagen synthesis. Because pro-fibrotic actions of angiotensin may be mediated by increased production of transforming growth factor-beta(1) (TGF-beta(1)), we assessed whether serum TGF-beta(1) levels might reflect involvement in LVH development. We analyzed relationships between left ventricular mass and levels of renin, aldosterone, and TGF-beta(1) in 67 hypertensive subjects (mean age 64 +/- 11.

Comparison of complex DNA mixtures with generic oligonucleotide microchips.

The reproducibility of melting curves for repeated hybridizations of target DNA with generic oligonucleotide microchips is shown experimentally to depend on the character of matching between fragments of target DNA and immobilized oligonucleotides. The reproducibility of melting curves is higher for the perfect match duplexes and decreases as the number of mismatched pairs within duplexes increases. This effect was applied to the comparative analysis of complex DNA mixtures.