Virtual Reality Strategies for Promoting Mobility in the Intensive Care Unit: A Case Report.

Prolonged bed rest is a known contributor to muscle atrophy, weakness, and deconditioning. Early active mobilization protocols aim to combat acquired weakness and loss of function in patients in the intensive care unit. Despite these benefits, mobilization of patients in the intensive care unit remains a challenge, most notably for patients with limited ability to get out of bed because of invasive devices and prolonged hospitalization.

The association of indoor heat exposure with diabetes and respiratory 9-1-1 calls through emergency medical dispatch and services documentation.

Background: People with pre-existing medical conditions, who spend a large proportion of their time indoors, are at risk of emergent morbidities from elevated indoor heat exposures. In this study, indoor heat of structures wherein exposed people received Grady Emergency Services based care in Atlanta, GA, U.S.

Intracardiac echocardiography in congenital heart disease.

The use of intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) in congenital heart disease has become well established over the past 7 years since its introduction into clinical imaging. The greatest experience has been to guide percutaneous device closures of secundum atrial septal defects and patent foramen ovale, with excellent safety and clinical results. However, ICE has also been used for the evaluation and management of many other congenital heart defects given its unique blood/transducer interface and close proximity to relevant cardiac anatomy.

Neuroimaging and early diagnosis of Alzheimer disease: a look to the future.

Alzheimer disease (AD), a progressive neurodegenerative disorder, is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly. Current consensus statements have emphasized the need for early recognition and the fact that a diagnosis of AD can be made with high accuracy by using clinical, neuropsychologic, and imaging assessments. Magnetic resonance (MR) or computed tomographic (CT) imaging is recommended for the routine evaluation of AD.

Deficient Smad7 expression: a putative molecular defect in scleroderma.

Scleroderma is a chronic systemic disease that leads to fibrosis of affected organs. Transforming growth factor (TGF) beta has been implicated in the pathogenesis of scleroderma. Smad proteins are signaling transducers downstream from TGF-beta receptors.

FDG imaging of lung nodules: a phantom study comparing SPECT, camera-based PET, and dedicated PET.

Purpose: To evaluate 2-[fluorine-18]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) imaging of simulated lung nodules in a realistic chest phantom by using attenuation-corrected and non-attenuation-corrected 511-keV single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), camera-based positron emission tomography (PET), and dedicated PET imaging.

Materials And Methods: Spheres with diameters of 6, 10, 13, and 22 mm were placed in the lungs of an anthropomorphic chest phantom to simulate nodules. The lungs, nodules, chest wall, and mediastinum were filled with fluorine-18 activities based on the average radionuclide concentrations in those structures from analysis of attenuation-corrected dedicated FDG PET scans.

Low molecular weight heparin in coronary stenting.

A pilot clinical study called Enoxaparin and Ticlopidine after Elective Stenting (ENTICES) was designed to determine whether the combination of enoxaparin, ticlopidine and acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) is superior to the conventional five-drug regimen routinely used after elective stent placement (warfarin, unfractionated heparin, dextran, dipyridamole and ASA). Compared with patients on conventional therapy (44), those randomly assigned to enoxaparin and ticlopidine (79) had a lower composite rate of in-hospital bleeding and vascular complications (5% versus 16%; P = 0.005), a significantly lower composite end-point rate (death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, stent thrombosis of urgent revascularization) at 30 days (5% versus 20%; P = 0.