OBJECTIVE To detect the functional importance of coronary collaterals, which develop after acute myocardial infarctions (AMI). METHODS Forty patients with acute AMI whose coronary angiography demonstrated a total occlusion of the left anterior descendant (LAD) artery were included in the study, between January 2003 and June 2004. All of the study patients underwent coronary angiography and le...

Abstract A 70–year–old woman was admitted to our Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with high levels Hs–TnT. Coronaries were normal and ventriculography suggestive for Takotsubo Syndrome (TS). In the acute phase she developed a cardiogenic shock transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) showed dilated left ventricle (LV) iperkinesia of basal segments biventricular apex mid –ventricular akinesia, severely red...

Quantification of anatomical and physiological characteristics of the function of a musculoskeletal system may yield a detailed understanding of how the organizational levels of morphology, biomechanics, kinematics, and muscle activity patterns (MAPs) influence behavioral diversity. Using separate analyses of these organizational levels in representative study taxa, we sought patterns of congru...

paralysis of the face of peripheral nerve origin, with acute onset. It affects 20–30 persons per 100 000 annually, and 1 in 60 individuals will be affected over the course of their lifetime. The major cause of Bell palsy is believed to be an infection of the facial nerve by the herpes simplex virus. As a result of this viral infection, the facial nerve swells and is compressed in its canal as i...

Skinks account for more than 25% of all lizard species; however, representatives of fewer than a quarter of all species have been characterized osteologically. All but a few of the available cranial descriptions concentrate solely on characters that can be seen externally on the intact skull. Mabuyid skinks of the genus Trachylepis are the dominant, fully limbed skinks in Sub-Saharan Africa, an...

BACKGROUND CXCL12alpha, a chemokine that importantly promotes the oriented cell migration and tissue homing of many cell types, regulates key homeostatic functions and pathological processes through interactions with its cognate receptor (CXCR4) and heparan sulfate (HS). The alternative splicing of the cxcl12 gene generates a recently identified isoform, CXCL12gamma, which structure/function re...

We assessed the feasibility of cardiac contractility modulation (CCM) by electric currents applied during the refractory period in patients with heart failure (HF). Extracellular electric currents modulating action potential and calcium transients have been shown to potentiate myocardial contractility in vitro and in animal models of chronic HF. CCM signals were biphasic square-wave pulses with...

Histiocytic necrotizing lymphadenitis (HNL) usually affects cervical lymph nodes of young individuals and has a self-limited clinical course. Viral infection is ascribed as its cause, but its pathogenesis still remains unknown. A real-time PCR assay is useful for not only sensitive detection but also quantitation of virus DNA with a wide linear range. Using this technology, we estimated the loa...