Focal coronary spasm is often associated with an area of mural plaque disease. This report describes a patient with recurrent severe coronary spasm unresponsive to medical treatment. Coronary arteriography and intravascular ultrasound identified a candidate area of minor coronary atheromatous disease but ergonovine provocation testing showed the spastic coronary segment to be distal to and dist...

The Bayesian analysis was used in this study to investigate the diagnostic value of the bronchial provocation test with methacholine in patients with asthma. The best cutoff value of accumulated concentration of methacholine administered that caused a 20 percent fall in FEV1 post-saline (PC20) in our sample, determined with a receiver operator characteristic curve, was 15 mg/ml. The interval se...

The Brachial Plexus Provocation Test (BPPT) (or Upper Limb Tension Test) is used by clinicians to assess mechanical sensitivity of peripheral nerve tissue in the upper quadrant. The BPPT as developed by Elvey (1979) is performed in the following sequence: gentle shoulder depression, glenohumeral abduction to 90° and external rotation in the coronal plane, forearm supination and wrist and finger...

STUDY DESIGN One hundred and three lumbar intervertebral discs (L3/4-L5/S1) of 36 patients with low back pain were examined with computed tomography (CT) diskography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). OBJECTIVES To determine whether lumbar endplate degeneration correlates with the degree of disc degeneration or disc rupture and to determine if there is an association between pain provocati...

The mechanism and cause of acute eosinophilic pneumonia are largely unknown. Many factors including the smoking of cigarettes have been suggested, but none have been proven to directly cause acute eosinophilic pneumonia. The authors report a case of acute eosinophilic pneumonia in a young Asian male who recently started smoking. The diagnosis was made based on his clinical course and results of...

BACKGROUND Problem anger is frequently experienced by the general population and is known to cause significant problems for the individual and those around them. Whilst psychological treatments for problem anger are becoming increasingly established, this is still an under-researched area of mental health. We present an evaluation of a series of one-day anger management workshops for the public...

BACKGROUND Bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR), a characteristic feature of asthma, can be assessed through standardized bronchial provocation tests (BPT). Exercise as a BPT is used in diagnosing and monitoring exercise induced bronchoconstriction (EIB). Recently a novel osmotic BPT has been developed, using dry powder mannitol. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical utility of t...

Aggressive behavior is a common reaction in humans after an interpersonal provocation, but little is known about the underlying brain mechanisms. The present study analyzed oscillatory brain activity while participants were involved in an aggressive interaction to examine the neural processes subserving the associated decision and evaluation processes. Participants were selected from a larger s...

Aggression is a common response to provocation, albeit with considerable interindividual differences. In this fMRI study, we investigated emotional reactivity to threat as possible link between provocation and aggression, as well as the neural correlates of this relationship. We hypothesized that emotional reactivity, measured as fear potentiation (FP) of the startle response, would be negative...

A study was performed to assess the time between drug intake and drug induced hypersensitivity reaction for patients sensitive to nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAID) in clinical patient history and after oral provocation tests. Drug hypersensitivity ENDA questionnaires were filled for the patients with suspected sensitivity to NSAID. Oral provocation tests were performed with suspected ...