AIMS Although cardiac alternans is a known predictor of lethal arrhythmias, its underlying causes remain largely undefined in disease settings. The potential role of, and mechanisms responsible for, beat-to-beat alternations in the amplitude of systolic Ca(2+) transients (Ca(2+) alternans) was investigated in a canine post-myocardial infarction (MI) model of sudden cardiac death (SCD). METHOD...

BACKGROUND The objective was to analyze locoregional (LR) failure patterns in patients with head-and-neck cancer (HNC) treated using intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) with whole salivary gland-sparing: parotid (PG), submandibular (SMG), and accessory salivary glands represented by the oral cavity (OC). METHODS Seventy consecutive patients with Stage I-II (23%) or III/IV (77%) HNC treate...

OBJECTIVES This study evaluated the pause-dependency of the J-wave to characterize this phenomenon in idiopathic ventricular fibrillation (VF). BACKGROUND The J-wave can be found in apparently healthy subjects and in patients at risk for sudden cardiac death, and risk stratification is therefore needed. METHODS Forty patients with J-wave-associated idiopathic VF were studied for J waves wit...

RATIONALE Structural differences between ventricular regions may not be the sole determinant of local ventricular fibrillation (VF) dynamics and molecular remodeling may play a role. OBJECTIVES To define regional ion channel expression in myopathic hearts compared to normal hearts, and correlate expression to regional VF dynamics. METHODS AND RESULTS High throughput real-time RT-PCR was use...

1. In the unanesthetized spinal cord, conditioning stimulation of low-threshold afferents (below 1.3 times threshold strength) in the biceps semitendinosus (BST) nerve often reduced the peak amplitude of the monosynaptic Ia EPSPs evoked in gastrocnemius motoneurons without affecting the monosynaptic component of the EPSPs evoked by stimulation of the ipsilateral ventral funiculus (VF) in the th...

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are among the most common bacterial infections and are responsible for significant morbidity and health care costs worldwide. The main bacterial cause of uncomplicated UTI is Escherichia coli, which possesses numerous virulence factors (VFs). Many studies of the pathogenesis of E. coli UTI have centered on VF genes. Hence, the development of better molecular assa...

Arrhythmias correlate with disorders of either K(2+) channels in sarcolemma or calcium modulating system in sarcoplasmic reticulum which handles Ca(2+) intracellularly. We hypothesized that an activated endothelin (ET) signaling pathway, which may be associated with an alteration of K(+) channels and Ca(2+) uptake activity in the myocardium, participated in the exaggerated ventricular fibrillat...

PURPOSE We measured macular inner retinal layer thicknesses using frequency-domain optical coherence tomography (fd-OCT) and correlated these measures with visual field (VF) in eyes with temporal hemianopia from chiasmal compression and band atrophy (BA) of the optic nerve. METHODS Macular fd-OCT scans and VFs were obtained from 33 eyes of 33 patients with temporal hemianopia and 36 control e...

BACKGROUND Trabeculectomy is frequently performed in patients with glaucoma who are deteriorating, although its effects on rates of visual field (VF) progression are not fully understood. We studied the rate of VF progression post trabeculectomy comparing with medically treated patients matched for VF loss. METHODS Medical records of patients who underwent trabeculectomy alone or combined wit...

PURPOSE Therapeutic prostate-specific antigen (PSA) -targeted poxviral vaccines for prostate cancer have been well tolerated. PROSTVAC-VF treatment was evaluated for safety and for prolongation of progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in a randomized, controlled, and blinded phase II study. PATIENTS AND METHODS In total, 125 patients were randomly assigned in a multicenter...