Background—The direct thrombin inhibitor dabigatran etexilate (DE) may constitute a future replacement of vitamin K antagonists for long-term anticoagulation. Whereas warfarin pretreatment is associated with greater hematoma expansion after intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), it remains unclear what effect direct thrombin inhibitors would have. Using different experimental models of ICH, this study...

Background With the use of split liver grafts as well as living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) it is imperative to know the minimum graft volume to avoid complications. Most current formulas to predict standard liver volume (SLV) rely on weight-based measures that are likely inaccurate in the setting of cirrhosis. Therefore, we sought to create a formula for estimating SLV without weight-ba...

OBJECTIVE: Previous research suggests proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) stretching techniques produce greater increases in range of motion than passive, ballistic, or static stretching methods. The purpose of our study was to measure the duration of maintained hamstring flexibility after a 1-time, modified hold-relax stretching protocol. DESIGN AND SETTING: The study had a 1 x 1 m...

UNLABELLED In atraumatic restorative treatment (ART), caries removal with hand excavation instruments is not as efficient as that with rotary burs in eliminating bacteria under the glass ionomer cements (GICs). Thus, different antibacterial agents have been used in recent studies to enhance the antibacterial properties of the GICs, without jeopardizing their basic physical properties. OBJECTI...

BACKGROUND Retinoid X receptor (RXR) plays a central role in the regulation of intracellular receptor signaling pathways. The activation of RXR has protective effect on H2O2-induced apoptosis of H9c2 ventricular cells in rats. But the protective effect and mechanism of activating RXR in cardiomyocytes against hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R)-induced oxidative iniury are still unclear. METHODS The ...

Many people chew gum partly due to the belief that it increases aspects of mental performance, including concentration. To the best of our knowledge no empirical evidence exists to support this contention. The present experiment, therefore, examined the effects of chewing gum using a comprehensive and sensitive cognitive assessment battery and two tasks manipulating cognitive load. Heart rate r...

Most of the statistical techniques used to evaluate the data obtained from toxicity studies are based on the assumption that the data show a normal distribution and homogeneity of variance. Literature review on toxicity studies on laboratory animals reveals that in most of the cases homogeneity of variance alone is examined for the data obtained from these studies. But the data that show homoge...

BACKGROUND Anxiety during pregnancy and its adverse effects on mother and baby is a health concern worldwide. This study aimed to investigate the effects of group cognitive behavioral therapy (GCBT) compared with interactive lectures (IL) on anxiety during pregnancy. METHODS This quasi experimental trial was conducted in Sari city, in north Iran, from March to July 2015. Participants were 91 ...

PURPOSE To objectively determine the effects of pupil size on optical quality parameters in astigmatic eyes using a double-pass instrument. METHODS We examined twenty-two eyes of 22 healthy volunteers (mean age  ±  standard deviation, 27.1 ± 2.8 years) who had no ophthalmic diseases other than refractive errors (manifest cylinder ≤ 0.25 diopters (D)). After we fully corrected cycloplegic refr...

This study evaluated structural and molecular issues of dentin caries-like lesions produced by different artificial models (ACL) compared with natural caries lesions (NCL). One hundred twenty-four sound occlusal dentin blocks and 47 carious blocks were obtained and surface hardness was analyzed (SH1). They were assigned to groups according to ACL: GB: Biological; GC: Chemical; GIS: In situ; GNC...