Eosinophils are potent effector cells that are recruited to sites of inflammation. However, in some tissues, in particular in the gastrointestinal tract, eosinophils constitute an abundant leukocyte population also under homeostatic conditions. The lack of suitable isolation protocols restricted the analysis of these cells to histological assessment of cell numbers while important aspects of th...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW Minimally invasive surgery involving the thoracic cavity continues to increase. With the introduction of robotic systems, particularly the da Vinci robot system more than 10 years ago, thoracic operations have been performed with some provocative results and limited, defined advantages. The present review provides an overview of common thoracic surgical procedures performed wi...

BACKGROUND Fibrocytes are a population of circulating bone-marrow-derived cells that express surface markers for leukocytes and mesenchymal cells, and are capable of differentiating into myofibroblasts. They have been observed at sites of active fibrosis and increased circulating numbers correlate with mortality in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Inhibition of chemokine (C-C motif) recepto...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE To evaluate the significance of multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (MDRAB)-related ventilator-associated pneumonia at a medical center in southern Taiwan. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients with MDRAB isolated from sputum and described the characteristics of these patients. Patients were divided into 2 groups according to their ...

Recent developments in genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics hold substantial promise for understanding cellular responses to toxicants. Gene expression profiling is now considered standard procedure, but numerous publications reporting a lack of correlation between mRNA and protein expression emphasize the importance of conducting parallel proteomics studies. The cellular complexity of the lu...

INTRODUCTION Pulmonary vein stenosis (PVS) is a potential complication of pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) using radiofrequency energy. The aim of our study was the evaluation of the severity and long-term outcome of primary angioplasty and angioplasty with pulmonary vein stenting for PVS. METHODS AND RESULTS Twelve patients with 15 PVS (greater than 70% stenosis) were prospectively evaluated. ...

31 The aim of the present study was the isolation and identification of bacteria from trachea and lung of slaughtered buffaloes. A total of 160 swab samples were collected from tracheas (80) and lungs (80) freshly slaughtered buffeloes from the slaughter houses of Dinajpur Sadar, Dinajpur, Bangladesh, during the period from June 2011 to February 2012. Among them, 9 tracheas (out of 80 samples) ...

The volume and complexity of thoracic procedures performed with a thoracoscopic approach are steadily increasing. Surgical exposure is paramount for thoracoscopic procedures and requires meticulous lung isolation. In this review, the physiological adaptive mechanisms that occur during one-lung ventilation (OLV) are discussed. Factors that predict the occurrence of hypoxemia during OLV and a str...

BACKGROUND In this study, four lung lesion scoring methods (Slaughterhouse Pleurisy Evaluation System [SPES], Consolidation Lung Lesion Score [LLS], Image analyses [IA] and Ratio of lung weight/body weight [LW/BW]) were compared for the assessment of the different pathological outcomes derived from an Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (App) experimental infection model. Moreover, pathological dat...

A series of 557 malignant mesotheliomas of the pleura diagnosed in the Trieste-Monfalcone area, Italy, in the period 1968-2000 were reviewed. The series included 492 men and 65 women, aged between 32 and 93 years (median age 69 years). Necropsy findings were available in 456 cases (82%). Occupational histories were obtained from the patients themselves or from their relatives by personal or tel...