Risk estimation for recurrent cardiovascular events using the SMART-REACH model and direct inpatient cost profiling in Indonesian ASCVD patients: a large-scale multicenter study.

Introduction: With atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) cases increasing in Indonesia, there is a growing need to identify high-risk patients for recurrent cardiovascular events. Risk stratification could guide optimal secondary preventive therapy. Understanding the ASCVD direct inpatient costs could further provide insight in reducing the economic burden that comes with Indonesia's high number ASCVD cases.

Occupational Health Problems of Classical Guitarists.

Aims: Classical guitarists may experience unique occupational health problems due to a constellation of biopsychosocial demands associated with the physical characteristics of the classical guitar, performance techniques, repertoire, and performance practices consistent with the classical music genre. Unfortunately, epidemiologic studies of classical guitarists are limited. The purpose of this study was to examine musculoskeletal and non-musculoskeletal problems in classical guitarists.

Neuregulin-1 is a chemoattractant and chemokinetic molecule for trunk neural crest cells.

Background: Trunk neural crest cells migrate rapidly along characteristic pathways within the developing vertebrate embryo. Proper trunk neural crest cell migration is necessary for the morphogenesis of much of the peripheral nervous system, melanocytes, and the adrenal medulla. Numerous molecules help guide trunk neural crest cell migration throughout the early embryo.

Screen for Slit/Robo signaling in trunk neural cells reveals new players.

Slits ligands and their Robo receptors are involved in quite disparate cell signaling pathways that include axon guidance, cell proliferation, cell motility and angiogenesis. Neural crest cells emerge by delamination from neural cells in the dorsal neural tube, and give rise to various components of the peripheral nervous system in vertebrates. It is well established that these cells change from a non-migratory to a highly migratory state allowing them to reach distant regions before they differentiate.

Slit molecules prevent entrance of trunk neural crest cells in developing gut.

Neural crest cells emerge from the dorsal neural tube early in development and give rise to sensory and sympathetic ganglia, adrenal cells, teeth, melanocytes and especially enteric nervous system. Several inhibitory molecules have been shown to play important roles in neural crest migration, among them are the chemorepulsive Slit1-3. It was known that Slits chemorepellants are expressed at the entry to the gut, and thus could play a role in the differential ability of vagal but not trunk neural crest cells to invade the gut and form enteric ganglia.

Hepatitis C status of heart transplant recipients.

The records of 155 consecutive patients who underwent successful heart transplantation (HTx) were reviewed to document the incidence of hepatitis C (HCV) infection. One patient was HCV RNA positive pre-HTx, and 12 patients (8%) developed transient or permanent HCV positivity post-HTx. HCV RNA positivity was associated with biochemical features of liver injury.

Primary bronchogenic carcinoma in recipients of heart transplants.

With the exception of carcinomas of the skin and lip, carcinoma of the bronchus is the most common carcinoma that afflicts recipients of solid organ grafts. Of 859 tumors occurring in 830 recipients of thoracic organs reported to the Cincinnati Tumor Transplant Registry, 242 were carcinomas and 68 of these were bronchogenic carcinomas, which therefore made up 8% of the overall total. There are, however, relatively few reports of heart transplant patients with bronchogenic carcinoma in the literature.

How many endomyocardial biopsies are necessary in the first year after heart transplantation?

Since 1989, the immunosuppressive regimen used in all heart transplant (HTx) patients at our center has consisted of a combination of cyclosporin, azathioprine, and prednisone. No prophylactic cytolytic agents have been given. One hundred consecutive patients were followed for periods of 4-56 months (mean 27 months).

Cardiac transplantation in patients aged 60 years or older.

One hundred eighty-four consecutive patients who underwent heart transplantation from January 1987 to December 1994 have been reviewed. Patients who were 60 years of age or older at the time of transplant (Group A, n = 50) showed improved overall survival when compared with younger patients (Group B, n = 134), though this was not statistically significant. Survivals in groups A and B were 94% and 90%, respectively, at 1 year; 86% and 80% at 5 years; and 86% and 78% at 8 years.

Interferon alpha treatment of chronic hepatitis C in patients with evidence for co-existent autoimmune dysregulation.

Background/aims: We performed a prospective nonrandomized clinical trial to demonstrate that Interferon (IFN) treatment of individuals with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) positive hepatitis (CH-C) and serologic and/or histologic evidence of autoimmune dysregulation is feasible and whether the benefits of successfully treating CH-C are outweighed by the risk of exacerbating Autoimmune Chronic Active Hepatitis (ACAH).

Patients And Methods: 23 patients with positive autoimmune dysregulation markers underwent a 6 month course of IFN treatment for chronic HCV hepatitis and were followed for a total of 12 months. Patients were treated with 5 MU of a2b IFN administered subcutaneously 7 days a week for 6 months.

Induction therapy with cyclosporine without cytolytic agents results in a low incidence of acute rejection without significant renal impairment in heart transplant patients.

Since 1989, the immunosuppressive regimen used in all heart transplant patients at our center has consisted of (i) cyclosporine induction therapy (pretransplant p.o. 2-6 mg/kg depending on serum creatinine level, with immediate post-transplant i.

Cryoglobulinemia: a cause for false negative polymerase chain reaction results in patients with hepatitis C virus positive chronic liver disease.

With the introduction of interferon therapy for liver disease due to chronic viral hepatitis, it has become important to test individuals thought to have hepatitis C virus disease for the presence of the virus. Moreover, the current goal of therapy for hepatitis C virus-positive liver disease is to render the individual patient HCV-RNA negative. Recently, it has been reported that as many as one-third of the patients with hepatitis C virus liver disease test positive for the presence of mixed cryoglobulins.

Survival following organ transplantation in an Oklahoma institution, 1985-1993.

Since 1985, a total of 413 patients have undergone 439 solid organ transplants at the authors' institution. The current actuarial one-year survival rate of patients undergoing heart, kidney, lung, or liver transplantation at our center is 94%, 90%, 87%, and 91%, respectively. Five-year survival of heart and kidney recipients is 80% and 75%, respectively.

Study of the relative incidences of psychosocial factors before and after heart transplantation and the influence of posttransplantation psychosocial factors on heart transplantation outcome.

Psychosocial factors substance abuse, noncompliance, psychiatric problems, and obesity in relation to the outcome of heart transplantation have been investigated. Data were gathered at the time of initial assessment, and patients (n = 53) were monitored during the follow-up after heart transplantation (mean 18 months). Noncompliance, psychiatric problems, or excessive weight before heart transplantation continued after heart transplantation.

Cardiac allotransplantation across the ABO-blood group barrier by the neutralization of preformed antibodies: the baboon as a model for the human.

The baboon, like the human, expresses A and/or B blood group antigens on its tissues. Anti-A and anti-B antibodies are directed against these antigens, the epitopes of which are carbohydrate structures. Portions of these carbohydrates have been synthesized (trisaccharides A and B, respectively).