Traumatic haemarthrosis of the knee -- indication to acute arthroscopy.

Background And Aims: The most common mechanisms of the knee injuries are distortions and contusions. Fairly often they will result in hemarthrosis. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the findings in patients with acute traumatic hemarthrosis of the knee and based on these findings estimate the necessity of acute artroscopic examination with therapeutic procedure.

Non food foreign body injuries.

Rationale And Aim: The aim of the present study is to acquire a better understanding of Non Food Foreign Bodies (NFFB) injuries in children with particular regard to the quantification of the risk of complications and hospitalization associated with patient characteristics, FB features, FB location and circumstances of the accident, as emerging from the SUSY Safe Web-Registry.

Methods: The present study uses data provided by the SUSY Safe Project, a DG SANCO co-funded project which was aimed to collect as many scientific data as possible regarding Foreign Bodies (FB) injuries in children aged 0-14 years and to serve as a basis for a knowledge-based consumer protection activity in the Europe market. FBs were characterized by size, shape and consistency.

The epidemiology of pediatric burns undergoing intensive care in Burn Centre Brno, Czech Republic, 1997-2009.

Unlabelled: The aim of this study was to determine the basic epidemiological characteristics of severely burned children who were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), Department of Burns and Reconstructive Surgery Faculty Hospital Brno, Czech Republic in the years 1997-2009.

Methods: We collected and evaluated epidemiological data such as age, sex, burn etiology, length of hospitalization, duration of the ICU stay, surgical or conservative therapeutic strategies, the use of mechanical ventilation and its duration, day and month of injury and the extent of burned area.

Results: In total 383 children (253 boys, 130 girls) aged 0-14 years, underwent intensive care for at least 48h.

Safety of amisulpride in combination with antidepressants under common clinical practice conditions.

Aim: The main objective was to identify the occurrence of adverse events associated with amisulpride when combined with antidepressants (ADs).

Methods: A non-interventional questionnaire-based study focussed on identification of occurrence and tolerance of combinations of amisulpride with ADs under common clinical practice conditions.

Results: Combinations of amisulpride with ADs were administered to 3178 patients suffering from depression.

Spontaneous duodenal intramural haematoma imitating pancreatic pseudocyst.

Spontaneous intramural duodenal haematoma develops mostly as a complication of anticoagulation therapy. Other causes were reported only as case reports. CT diagnostics has some typical features in an intramural haematoma of the small bowel.

Prognostic significance of morphological assessment of plasma cells in multiple myeloma.

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a hematological malignancy caused by clonal proliferation of malignant plasma cells (PC). The aim of the work is to determine prognostic significance of morphological subtypes of PC in relation to overall treatment response, long-term survival and other conventional prognostic parameters. One hundred and thirty-nine newly diagnosed MM patients who underwent autologous transplantation in clinical trials conducted in one center were included.

Is carotid endarterectomy under the cervical plexus block safe for all patients with various degree of cardiovascular risk?

Background: The result of the GALA study did not answer the question whether it is safe to perform carotid endarterectomy (CEA) under the cervical plexus block (CPB) in patients at high cardiovascular (CV) risk. The aim of the study was to compare CV stability and the frequency of cardiovascular and neurological complications in 3 groups of patients with various degree of CV risk who underwent CEA under CPB.

Methods: 60 patients operated on in CPB were divided into the 3 groups according to the degree of their CV risk (I: very high, II: medium, III: low).

Two frequent polymorphisms of angiotensinogen and their association with multiple sclerosis progression rate.

A total of 195 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and 126 controls were investigated for angiotensinogen/(-6)A/G, M235T/and angiotensin converting enzyme I/D gene polymorphisms to test their association with MS susceptibility and/or disease progression using Global Multiple Sclerosis Severity Score (MSSS). We demonstrated a significant association of M235T polymorphism with MSSS. The MM homozygotes had the lowest (3.

Maximum-uncertainty linear discrimination analysis of first-episode schizophrenia subjects.

Recent techniques of image analysis brought the possibility to recognize subjects based on discriminative image features. We performed a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based classification study to assess its usefulness for outcome prediction of first-episode schizophrenia patients (FES). We included 39 FES patients and 39 healthy controls (HC) and performed the maximum-uncertainty linear discrimination analysis (MLDA) of MRI brain intensity images.

ACE gene insertion/deletion polymorphism has a mild influence on the acute development of left ventricular dysfunction in patients with ST elevation myocardial infarction treated with primary PCI.

Background: We evaluated the associations among angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism, ACE activity and post-myocardial infarction (MI) left ventricular dysfunction and acute heart failure (AHF) early after presentation with MI with ST-segment elevation (STEMI).

Methods: A total of 556 patients with STEMI treated by primary PCI (421 patients without AHF and 135 patients with AHF) were the study population. The activity of BNP, NT-ProBNP and ACE were measured at hospital admission and 24 h after MI onset.

Outcome in males with first-episode schizophrenia: 7-year follow-up.

Objectives: The early course of schizophrenia is highly variable. We assessed outcomes of patients with first-episode schizophrenia at 7-year follow-up.

Methods: Consecutively hospitalized male patients were included if they were experiencing their first admission for first-episode schizophrenia and were reassessed at 1-, 4- and 7-year follow-ups.

Relationship between high aortic pulse pressure and extension of coronary atherosclerosis in males.

A high pulse pressure (PP) is a marker of increased artery stiffness and represents a well-established independent predictor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The objective of the research was to determine whether invasively measured central aortic PP was related to the presence and severity of coronary artery disease. In total 1075 consecutive stable male patients undergoing diagnostic coronary angiography with a preserved left ventricular function were included.

Bile duct malignancies.

Bile duct malignancies include intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC), extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ECC), gall bladder carcinoma (GC) and carcinoma of Vater's ampulla (ampulloma). Bile duct neoplasms are rare tumours with overall poor prognosis. The overall incidence affects up to 12.

The effects of lidocaine on bupivacaine-induced cardiotoxicity in the isolated rat heart.

Bupivacaine is a widely used long-acting local anaesthetic. In clinical practice, a mixture of bupivacaine and lidocaine is often used in order to combine the faster onset of sensory blockade of lidocaine with more profound and longer duration of blockade by bupivacaine. The aim of this study was to compare the cardiotoxicity of large doses of bupivacaine and mixture of bupivacaine with lidocaine in the isolated rat heart and to estimate whether or not the addition of lidocaine in clinically relevant concentration increases bupivacaine-induced toxicity.

Radiofrequency ablation in treatment of atrial fibrillation.

Beside heart failure and metabolic syndrome, atrial fibrillation is termed the cardiovascular epidemic of the twenty-first century. Its increased morbidity and mortality is alarming. The present, most effective therapy of atrial fibrillation is catheter ablation.

Determination of asialotransferrin in the cerebrospinal fluid with the HPLC method.

Background: Identification of the content of asialotransferrin in the cerebrospinal fluid is a diagnostic method for childhood-onset ataxia and central nervous system hypomyelination (CACH), also known as vanishing white matter disease (VWM), and also for other types of CNS disorders.

Methods: In our work, we have determined the value of the ratio of the asialo form of transferrin to the total transferrin in the CSF using the commercially used Variant(TM) Bio-Rad system for the determination of carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) in serum. The peak corresponding to the asialo form of transferrin was identified with electrophoresis with subsequent immunofixation and mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF/TOF).

Prolactin levels in risperidone treatment of first-episode schizophrenia.

Objects: To evaluate the risperidone effect on prolactin (PRL) levels and to analyse the relation between PRL change and treatment response in first-episode schizophrenia patients.

Method: Patients with a first-episode of schizophrenia who were consecutively admitted for hospitalisation participated in a longitudinal follow-up study that included clinical evaluation (PANSS) and PRL assessment. All patients were treated under open conditions with risperidone.

The importance of a multidisciplinary approach in the treatment of mutilating electrical injury: a case study.

Electrical burns are not ranked among the most frequent type of injuries, but they have the most devastating potential of all thermal injuries and often cause lifelong stigmatization. Those primarily affected are young males: work injuries predominate. An electrical burn is a specific nosological unit that has multiple acute and chronic abnormal manifestations.

Leptin--2548 g/A polymorphism in endometrial cancer.

Background: Previously, the polymorphism-2548 G/A within the promoter of the leptin (LEP) gene was reported to be associated with overweight and obesity, the factors significantly associated to increased endometrial cancer risk. Leptin has been described to play an important role in signal transduction in endometrial cancer cells indicating that leptin promotes endometrial cancer growth and invasiveness and implicating the JAK/STAT and AKT pathways as critical mediators of leptin action. The aim of the study was to investigate the possible associations of LEP-2548 G/A polymorphism with endometrial cancer and its related traits.

Angiosarcoma of the parotid gland.

Angiosarcomas of the major salivary glands are rare tumours. The authors describe a case of the tumour located in the right parotid gland of a 77-year-old woman. Histological examination revealed a poorly differentiated tumour made up of epithelioid and spindle cells.

Gray matter morphology and the level of functioning in one-year follow-up of first-episode schizophrenia patients.

Unlabelled: Schizophrenia is a condition with a highly variable course that is hard to predict. The aim of the present study was to investigate if local gray matter volume (GMV) can differentiate poor (PF) and good (GF) functioning patients using voxel-wise analysis in a group of first-episode schizophrenia subjects (FES).

Method: 32 FES male patients were assessed twice: at the time of the first episode of schizophrenia and one year later.

Achalasia--which method of treatment to choose for senior patients?

Background: Achalasia is an uncommon illness affecting 1 per 100,000 patients a year. It encompasses a rare, primary motor disorder of the distal esophagus.

Methods: Over the period 1998-2006, 115 patients underwent various treatments for achalasia; the subgroup of seniors consisted of 26 patients.

Crohn's disease: clinical-surgical questions and imaging answers.

Crohn's disease is an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) characterized by a relapsing clinical pattern that typically affects people during their adult and economically productive lives. Affected patients require clinical follow-up because of the periodic flare-up of the disease and of the risk of long-term complications. Extensive diagnostic procedures, medical and surgical treatments are often needed over a lifetime.

Use of allogenic stem cells for the prevention of bone bridge formation in miniature pigs.

This study appears from an experiment previously carried out in New Zealand white rabbits. Allogenic mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were transplanted into an iatrogenically-created defect in the lateral section of the distal physis of the left femur in 10 miniature pigs. The right femur with the same defect served as a control.