BACKGROUND Many patients receiving cardiac rhythm devices have conditions requiring antiplatelet (AP) and/or anticoagulant (AC) therapy. Current guidelines recommend a heparin-bridging strategy (HBS) for anticoagulated patients with moderate/high risk for thrombosis. Several studies reported lower bleeding risk with continued oral anticoagulation rather than HBS. The best strategy for periopera...

Home base stations (HBSs), which are considered to be useful extensions to mobile operators’ networks, are a promising solution for many issues in mobile communication networks, such as coverage, capacity, and cost. They deliver a great user experience for services in the home or in office buildings using customers’ broadband access for backhaul. However, connecting to the mobile operators’ net...

Isolates able to grow on 3- or 4-hydroxybiphenyl (HB) as the sole carbon source were obtained by enrichment culture. The 3-HB degrader Pseudomonas sp. strain FH12 used an NADPH-dependent monooxygenase restricted to 3- and 3,3'-HBs to introduce an ortho-hydroxyl. The 4-HB degrader Pseudomonas sp. strain FH23 used either a mono- or dioxygenase to generate a 2,3-diphenolic substitution pattern whi...

We took blood samples from 128 prostitutes visiting the outpatient venereology department of the University Hospital, Rotterdam-Dijkzigt to test for the presence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen (anti-HBs). The prevalence of anti-HBs was found to be significantly higher in the group of prostitutes than in "normal populations", and we concluded t...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is increasingly observed in sickle cell disease (SCD) and beta-thalassemia (beta-thal), but there is no information on its prevalence in patients with HbS/beta-thal. The amino-terminal fragment of B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) is considered as an independent prognostic factor in PH. The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidenc...

UNLABELLED Preoperative evaluation of future remnant liver (FRL) function is crucial in the determination of whether a patient can safely undergo liver resection. Although dynamic (99m)Tc-mebrofenin hepatobiliary scintigraphy (HBS) is used to measure FRL function, 2-dimensional planar images lack the ability to assess segmental liver function. Modern SPECT/CT cameras combine dynamic (99m)Tc-meb...

Previously, I have reported the laparoscopical and histological findings of 16 chronic HBs Ag carriers in whom the time of HBV infection could be assumed, HBs Ag in the sera persisted for at least 6 months, and laparoscopy with liver biopsy was performed. In these carriers, no abnormal results of liver function tests were found and early history of hepatitis was unknown. Besides these 16 HBs Ag...

The complications of sickle cell disease (SCD) arise from the presence in red cells of the mutated haemoglobin, HbS, which replaces the normal adult Hb,HbA. HbS has a single amino acid substitutionwhereby valine replaces glutamic acid in the 6th codon of the β chain. Most SCD patients inherit two copies of the sickle gene (homozygous HbSS individuals sometimes termed sickle cell anaemia, SCA). ...

The aim of this study was to evaluate, in adults, the immunogenicity of six hepatitis B vaccines with different doses or different manufacturers in the Chinese market and to provide evidence to support adult hepatitis B vaccination. Participants were randomly divided into six groups (I-VI). Six vaccines (4 at 10 μg/dose and 2 at 20 μg/dose) were administered intramuscularly to healthy adults at...

The recent advances in full human body (HB) imaging technology illustrated by the 3-D human body scanner (HBS), a device delivering full HB shape data, opened up large perspectives for the deployment of this technology in various fields such as the clothing industry, anthropology, and entertainment. However, these advances also brought challenges on how to process and interpret the data deliver...