variation of the branches of the external carotid artery (eca) is well known, but it is extremely rare for the occipital artery (oa) to arise from the internal carotid artery (ica). a 87-year-old man was found to have this anatomical variation on the right side by threedimensional computed tomography angiography for vascular mapping of the carotid arteries before superselective intra-arterial c...

PURPOSE Accurate calculation of the percentage of stenosis is crucial for identifying candidates for endarterectomy. Our goal was to quantify the reduction in diameter of the distal internal carotid artery (ICA) as a function of proximal ICA stenosis and to discuss the implications of distal ICA narrowing on the calculation of percentage of stenosis using the criteria of the North American Symp...

This paper presents a novel subspace method called sequential row–column independent component analysis (RC-ICA) for face recognition. Unlike the traditional ICA, in which the face image is transformed into a vector before calculating the independent components (ICs), RC-ICA consists of two sequential stages—an image row-ICA followed by a column-ICA. There is no image-to-vector transformation i...

Citrate has been recommended as the first-line anticoagulant for continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) in critically ill patients. Compared with heparin, citrate anticoagulation is safer and more efficacious. Citrate inhibits the coagulation cascade by lowering the ionized calcium (iCa) concentration in the filter. Monitoring of systemic iCa concentrations is inherent to the protocol, and...

CONTEXT The importance of an abnormal ionized calcium (iCa) measurement in noncritically ill patients is unclear. Furthermore, iCa monitoring is more expensive than measurement of total calcium and consumes more laboratory resources. We hypothesize that most iCa tests are ordered for routine monitoring in asymptomatic patients, and results do not influence clinical management. OBJECTIVE To ch...

R a c b e C t s w ‘ o ( P The lead article in this issue by Bialer and colleagues is a summary of the Eleventh Eilat Conference on New Antiepileptic Drugs and once again provides a comprehensive progress report on new antiepileptic drugs. This is the 10th such progress report from the Eilat conferences to appear in the pages of Epilepsy Research since 1995. The summary in this issue focuses onl...

The Nav1.1 voltage-gated sodium channel is a critical contributor to excitability in the brain, where pathological loss of function leads to such disorders as epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease, and autism. This voltage-gated sodium (Nav) channel subtype also plays an important role in mechanical pain signaling by primary afferent somatosensory neurons. Therefore, pharmacologic modulation of Nav1.1 ...

BACKGROUND It has been suggested that intracellular Ca2+ overload in cardiac myocytes leads to the development of diabetic cardiomyopathy. Troglitazone, an insulin-sensitizing agent, is a promising therapeutic agent for diabetes and has been shown to prevent diabetes-induced myocardial changes. To elucidate the underlying mechanism of troglitazone action on cardiac myocytes, the effects of trog...

BACKGROUND Ultrasound (US) guidance is advocated to reduce complications from thoracocentesis or intercostal catheter (ICC) insertion. Although imaging of the intercostal artery (ICA) with Doppler US has been reported, current thoracic guidelines do not advocate this, and bleeding from a lacerated ICA continues to be a rare but serious complication of thoracocentesis or ICC insertion. OBJECTI...