I read with interest the editorial in Thorax entitled ‘Identification of those at risk after acute pulmonary embolism’. In the second paragraph, the authors state and reference the inpatient mortality for normotensive patients with acute PE as w10%. My concern is twofold. First it is that readers may surmise that the mortality of acute treated PE is as quoted, when in reality the all-cause out ...

Polyethylene/nanoclay specimens containing from 0 to 5% nanoclays were prepared from a commercially available premixed PE/nanoclay masterbatch containing 50%wt of nanoclay. The masterbatch was diluted to the desired concentration by adding PE along with various amounts of compatibilizer in order to achieve the best possible dispersion of the nanoclay platelets. The dielectric response of the co...

Case Presentation A 67-year-old man with no previous medical history presented to the emergency department with 5 days of insidious, progressive dyspnea and chest congestion. On physical examination, he was found to be tachycardic to 126 beats/min, borderline hypotensive with blood pressure of 95/50 mm Hg, and hypoxemic to 87% on 4 L of oxygen by nasal cannula. He underwent contrastenhanced che...

Why address this issue? As of 2002, 525,959 miles (or about 46%) of gas distribution mains in the US were plastic and PE is the material of choice for distributors. It doesn’t corrode, doesn’t need cathodic protection and has a life of at least 100 years. It is a remarkable fuel gas distribution material. During a Plastic Pipe Fuel Gas Symposium I attended, a southern California gas distributor...

Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a fatal clinical condition that occurs as a result of mechanical obstruction of the pulmonary artery or its branches by any material (such as thrombus, air or fat) from anywhere in the body. Pulmonary embolism can be an acute condition, in which the signs and symptoms develop immediately after the event (i.e., the obstruction of the pulmonary vessels), or it can be ch...

OBJECTIVES Diagnosis of premature ejaculation (PE) for clinical trial purposes has typically relied on intravaginal ejaculation latency time (IELT) for entry, but this parameter does not capture the multidimensional nature of PE. Therefore, the aim was to develop a brief, multidimensional, psychometrically validated instrument for diagnosing PE status. METHODS The questionnaire development in...

OBJECTIVE Increased oxidative stress and immune dysfunction are implicated in preeclampsia (PE) and may contribute to the two- to fourfold increase in PE prevalence among women with type 1 diabetes. Prospective measures of fat-soluble vitamins in diabetic pregnancy are therefore of interest. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Maternal serum carotenoids (α- and β-carotene, lycopene, and lutein) and v...

BACKGROUND In patients with a first symptomatic pulmonary embolism (PE), the risk of recurrence is unknown. We therefore investigated the risk of recurrence among patients with spontaneous symptomatic PE and among those with deep vein thrombosis (DVT) without symptoms of PE. METHODS After discontinuation of secondary thromboprophylaxis for a first venous thromboembolism (VTE), we prospectivel...

Objective The objective of this study was to evaluate whether trimester-specific D-dimer levels or the modified Wells score (MWS) is a useful risk stratification tool to exclude pregnant women at low risk of pulmonary embolism (PE) from diagnostic imaging. Study Design This is a prospective and retrospective cohort study. Pregnant women who underwent diagnostic imaging for suspected PE were pro...

PE are peculiar exported mycobacterial proteins over-represented in pathogenic mycobacterial species. They are characterized by an N-terminal domain of about 110 amino acids (PE domain) which has been demonstrated to be responsible for their export and localization. In this paper, we characterize the PE domain of PE_PGRS33 (PE(Rv1818c)), one of the best characterized PE proteins. We constructed...