The Journey of Harmless Bullet: The Perioperative Care of Penetrating Cardiac Injury.

Traumatic injuries to the heart contribute significantly to trauma are associated with high mortality. Cardiac gunshot wounds (GSW) are considered more lethal compared to other injuries and present several unique challenges to the anesthesia management and perioperative care. We are reporting a rare case of a trauma victim who survived a GSW to the heart.

The relationship between immediate preoperative serum 25-hydroxy-vitamin D₃ levels and cardiac function, dysglycemia, length of stay, and 30-d readmissions in cardiac surgery patients.

Objectives: Vitamin D has pleiotropic effects on cardiac, renal, and endocrine diseases like diabetes mellitus and deficiency has been correlated with increased Intensive Care Unit (ICU) morbidity and mortality. We studied the relationship between preoperative Vitamin D levels and several short-term endpoints including cardiovascular events, glucose levels, ICU, and hospital length of stay.

Methods: Standard demographic data were obtained.

Two-color gauge theory with novel infrared behavior.

Using lattice simulations, we study the infrared behavior of a particularly interesting SU(2) gauge theory, with six massless Dirac fermions in the fundamental representation. We compute the running gauge coupling derived nonperturbatively from the Schrödinger functional of the theory, finding no evidence for an infrared fixed point up through gauge couplings g(2) of order 20. This implies that the theory either is governed in the infrared by a fixed point of considerable strength, unseen so far in nonsupersymmetric gauge theories, or breaks its global chiral symmetries producing a large number of composite Nambu-Goldstone bosons relative to the number of underlying degrees of freedom.

Pulse carboxyhemoglobin-oximetry and cigarette smoking.

Purpose: We used a pulse carbon monoxide (CO)-oximeter to measure the levels of carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) in smokers and non-smokers. Our goal was to determine if this device could not only define smoking status, but also to increase accuracy of self-reported data at various surveys on smoking.

Methods: Thirty-four healthy volunteers participated in this study.

A new diagnostic of the plasma density profile near the edge transport barrier from measurements of the radial profile of the H(alpha) line intensity.

An edge transport barrier is now one of the most important subjects of controlled fusion research. The edge transport barrier is located in the plasma region where hydrogen atoms readily penetrate, so the intensity of the H(alpha) (D(alpha)) line is high enough. A new diagnostic method uses the well-known property of hydrogen atoms that the ratio of the ionization rate S(i) to the excitation rate S(v) for the H(alpha) line is nearly constant over a wide range of plasma temperatures and densities.

Gross anatomy of the brachial plexus sheath in human cadavers.

Background And Objectives: Major nerves and vessels run alongside each other in a "neurovascular bundle" kept together by connective tissue that is often referred to by anatomists, surgeons, and anesthesiologists as the "sheath." Our goal was to macroscopically demonstrate the brachial plexus sheath in embalmed and fresh cadaver dissections.

Methods: Systematic dissections were performed on 11 embalmed cadavers (6 females and 5 males), plus one fresh, unembalmed male cadaver.

A subgluteal approach to the sciatic nerve in adults at 10 cm from the midline.

Background And Objectives: In 2003 we introduced the concept of a sciatic nerve block performed in the midgluteal area at a fixed distance from the midline in all adults regardless of gender and/or body size. The anatomic basis for that study suggested that a subgluteal block could also be accomplished in a similar fashion.

Methods: After informed consent, 20 patients were prospectively recruited.

Supraclavicular block in the obese population: an analysis of 2020 blocks.

Regional anesthesia in the obese patient can be challenging and possibly carries a greater failure rate as compared with that in the non-obese patient. We retrospectively reviewed our prospectively gathered peripheral block data to determine the influence of body weight on success rate of the supraclavicular block. Obesity was defined as body mass index > or =30.

The supraclavicular block with a nerve stimulator: to decrease or not to decrease, that is the question.

Unlabelled: Portable nerve stimulators for nerve blocks have been available for more than 40 yr. It is generally accepted that seeking a motor response at low outputs increases the chances of success. It is customary to start the procedure at a higher current with the goal of finding the nerve.

[Status of cerebral perfusion pressure and cerebral oxygenation in the acute period after cranio-cerebral injury].

Sixty-one patients with severe craniocerebral injuries were examined on days 1-3 after the injury. Consciousness was no more than 8 points by the Glasgow Coma Scale. The patients were divided into 2 groups: 1) favorable outcomes and 2) unfavorable outcomes.

[Clinical aspects, diagnosis and surgical treatment in injuries of the iliofemoral venous segment in children].

In 1985-1991 forty patients aged from 12 days to 14 years were treated for sequelae of iatrogenic injury to the iliofemoral venous segment. Twenty-five various operations for autovenous shunting were performed: cross shunt after Palma in 15, autovenous shunt in the anatomical projection in 3, phlebolysis and ligation of the collaterals in 5 cases, extravasal correction with A. N.

[Effect of vitamin D2 on the monooxygenase activity of the rat liver].

Stimulation of lipid peroxidation in the liver microsomal fraction and alteration in the xenobiotic metabolism were found within twelve hrs after a single vitamin D2 administration (960,000 MU/kg) into male rats. The effects observed appear to occur due to the vitamin D2 prooxidative properties.

[Stabilizing action of alpha-tocopherol in postischemic damage to the hydroxylating system of the endoplasmic reticulum membranes of the rat liver].

Administration of alpha-tocopherol (50 mg/kg) as an oily emulsion into male rat stomach every 12 hours 2 days before and 3 days after local disturbance in liver circulation prevents postischemia (72 hours after resumption of circulation) repression of amidopyrine-N-demethylation, aniline-hydroxylation, NADP H-neotetrazolium reductase, NADP H oxidase, a decrease in the cytochrome P-450 level, as well as intensification of ascorbate-dependent lipid peroxidation of hepatocyte endoplasmic reticulum membranes. The protective effect of alpha-tocopherol is suggested to be due to its antioxidative and membrane-stabilizing properties.

[Effect of alpha-tocopherol on the hydroxylating system and lipid peroxidation in membranes of endoplasmic reticulum from ischemic rat liver].

If 60 min long ischemia of a liver tissue lobe occurred after feeding of rats with oil emulsion of alpha-tocopherol at a dose of 50 mg/kg within 12 hrs during 2 days, the "ischemic" decrease in metabolism of amidopyrine and aniline, in content of cytochrome P-450 and activity of initial and middle steps of NADPH-dependent redox chain as well as intensification of ascorbate-dependent peroxidation of membrane lipids were prevented in endoplasmic reticulum of hepatocytes. The protective effect of alpha-tocopherol on these xenobiotics metabolism is apparently related to an increase in catalytic activity of cytochrome P-450, to the enzyme antioxidant and membrane-stabilizing properties.

[Enzyme activity of microsomal oxidation in ischemic and intact lobes of the rat liver after resumption of the liver blood circulation].

Forty-minute lobular ischemia of the rat liver produces no considerable changes in the activity of the enzymes of the hydroxylation system of the hepatocyte endoplasmic reticulum. After resumption of circulation in the microsomes of ischemized and intact lobes of the liver the activity of hydroxylases appreciably decreases, reaching the minimum level by the 72nd hour of the postischemic period. During this time lipid peroxidation increases.

[Changes in the enzyme activity of the hydroxylating system of the rat liver endoplasmic reticulum in ischemia].

Local disturbance of liver circulation for 40 minutes did not lead to any substantial changes in the hydroxylation system of microsomes of the ischemized area. 60-, 120- and 180-minute circulation distress causes a progressing decrease in amidopyrine and aniline metabolism, diminution of the content of cytochrome P-450 in the microsomes, and of the activity of NADP.H-ferricytochrome-c-reductase, NADP.

Exobiology and the effect of physical factors on micro-organisms.

A study of the action of different physical factors on micro-organisms is necessary for a further development of exobiology. The action of temperature on crystalline preparations of catalase and peroxidase was studied by means of oscillographic polarography. A determination of the height of polarographic waves at the decrease of temperature from 20 degrees C to 0 degrees C has shown that structural elements of the peroxidase molecule connected with the enzymatic activity are more stable with the decrease of temperature cf.

The possibility of life in outer space.

Experiments were carried out dealing with the effect of extreme factors on microorganisms. Methods for microbiological analysis of meteorites were developed. The effect of temperature, from -20 degrees C to +15 degrees C, on trypsine activity was studied.

The effect of low temperatures on the structure of enzymes.

The enzymes of the cold stable organisms possess lower levels of activation energy. A possibility for the adaptation of living creatures to low temperatures is finally associated with the structural alterations in proteins and enzymes. Polarographic studies on yeast alcohol dehydrogenase and on proteinase of B.