Relationships between pre-hospital characteristics and outcome in victims of foreign body airway obstruction during meals.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to determine the outcome of foreign body airway obstruction according to the initial actions taken for choking victims during meals.

Methods: Our subjects were patients who became unresponsive or unconscious because of foreign body airway obstruction (FBAO) during meals in the presence of bystander witnesses. We investigated the associations between outcome and the following factors: age, gender, type of foreign body, chest compressions after the patient became unresponsive or unconscious, episode of cardiac arrest, efforts by a bystander to remove the foreign body, eating-related activities of daily living, time elapsed from the 119 call to arrival of emergency medical technicians (EMTs), and time elapsed from the 119 call to hospital arrival (primary endpoint).

pH-induced phase transition control of thermoresponsive nano-micelles possessing outermost surface sulfonamide moieties.

Diblock copolymer comprising thermoresponsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-N,N-dimethylacrylamide) (PIPAAm-co-DMAAm) and hydrophobic poly(benzyl methacrylate) blocks was prepared by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer radical polymerization. Terminal functionalization of thermoresponsive blocks with either pH-responsive sulfadimethoxine (SD) or hydroxyl groups was performed through coupling reactions with thiol groups exposed by the aminolysis of dithiobenzoate groups located at P(IPAAm-co-DMAAm) termini. Outermost surface functionalized polymeric micelles were formed through the multi-assemblies of end-functional diblock copolymers with low critical micelle concentration (3.

The expression of the inducible nitric oxide synthase messenger RNA on monocytes in severe acute pancreatitis.

Background/aims: Although there have been numerous studies that nitric oxide (NO) is produced in monocytes and macrophages in animal models, it still remains controversial whether NO is produced by human monocytes and macrophages. To clarify whether NO is produced by human monocytes in patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), we examined the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) messenger RNA (mRNA) and constitutive nitric oxide synthase (cNOS) mRNA in cultured monocytes derived from severe acute pancreatitis patients complicated with SIRS.

Methodology: Monocytes were harvested from peripheral blood of nine severe acute pancreatitis patients with SIRS (group S) and five mild acute pancreatitis patients with no SIRS (group M).

Hemoperfusion with an immobilized polymyxin B fiber column improves tissue oxygen metabolism.

Recently, direct hemoperfusion with a polymyxin B-coated fiber column (DHP-PMX) has been increasingly used for the treatment of sepsis, and an improvement in outcomes has been reported. However, the mechanism of the method is not known in detail. In the present study, we examined whether the performance of DHP-PMX improved tissue oxygen metabolism in patients with sepsis.

Hemoperfusion with an immobilized polymyxin B fiber column reduces circulating interleukin-8 concentrations.

In the present study, we examined whether the performance of hemoperfusion with an immobilized polymyxin B fiber column (DHP-PMX) reduces circulating interleukin-8 concentration in patients with sepsis. Fifteen patients with sepsis satisfying the following criteria were enrolled in the study: (i) signs of systemic inflammatory response syndrome caused by infection; and (ii) mean arterial blood pressure > or =60 mm Hg (irrespective of the use of catecholamines). A thermodilution catheter was inserted prior to DHP-PMX for appropriate intravenous infusion, and the DHP-PMX was carried out twice at 24 h intervals (for 3 h each time).