Glycosaminoglycan hyaluronan (HA), a major constituent of the endothelial glycocalyx, helps to maintain vascular integrity. Preconditioning the heart with volatile anesthetic agents protects against ischemia/reperfusion injury. We investigated a possible protective effect of sevoflurane on the glycocalyx, especially on HA. The effect of pre-ischemic treatment with sevoflurane (15 minutes at 2% ...

A 67-year-old man was referred to our emergency room for evaluation of exertional dyspnea and pretibial pitting edema of recent origin. At admission, neck vein engorgement was evident. Electrocardiography revealed a typical atrial flutter with 2:1 conduction; the serum cardiac enzyme levels were within normal limits. The laboratory findings were as follows: white blood cell 3,800/ mm3, hemoglob...

Reactive oxygen species modulator 1 (Romo1) is a novel protein that plays an important role in intracellular reactive oxygen species generation. Recently, Romo1 has been suggested to have diagnostic and prognostic potential in lung cancer. However, there is no data on the diagnostic value of Romo1 level in malignant pleural effusion. We evaluated the clinical usefulness of Romo1 in pleural flui...

The pathophysiology of vaginal conditions is still ill-defined at a molecular level. Because the proteome of the human cervical-vaginal fluid (CVF) has not been reported to date, we undertook the identification of proteins present in the cell-free fraction of these fluids. Proteins were separated bidimensionally (2-D) by isoelectrofocusing (pH 3-11) followed by SDS-polyacrylamide electrophoresi...

Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), is a rodent-borne, acute, often fulminant cardiorespiratory illness. Noncardiogenic pulmonary edema is prominent in HPS as is cardiac dysfunction. Pleural effusions are commonly noted in patients with HPS and have been thought to be exudative. This report describes the prevalence and characteristics of pleural effusions by an assessment of chest radiographs ...

BACKGROUND Cardiac hemangioma is a rare cause for pericardial effusion. We present a case of hemangioendothelioma of the right atrial appendage associated with pericardial effusion in an infant. METHODS The patient was a 49-day-old infant transferred to our department because of the presence of pericardial effusion. Two-dimensional transthoracic echocardiography revealed moderate pericardial ...

BACKGROUND Keratinocytes are the major constituent of epithelial cells at skin and mucosal surfaces such as oral mucosa. In our previous study, it was indicated that oral keratinocytes play active roles in oral mucosal adaptive immune response and an IL-alpha sub-network was identified. In the past decades IL-1, a revolutionarily ancient cytokine, has attracted our attention for its important r...

INTRODUCTION Refractory pleural effusion in systemic immunoglobulin light chain amyloidosis without cardiac decompensation is rarely reported and has a poor prognosis in general (a median survival of 1.6 months). Moreover, the optimum treatment for this condition is still undecided. This is the first report on the successful use of vincristine, adriamycin and dexamethasone chemotherapy for refr...

BACKGROUND The diagnosis of tuberculous pleural effusion (TBPE) has some limitations. We studied the efficacy of interleukin-27 (IL-27) in the diagnosis of TBPE. METHODS We measured IL-27, adenosine deaminase (ADA), ADA-2, interferon-gamma (IFNγ), and the ADA·IL-27 and ADA-2·IL-27 products in all the pleural effusion fluids. The diagnostic yield of IL-27 was evaluated with receiver operating ...

OBJECTIVE The characteristics of oral lichen planus (OLP) provoke investigators to explore possible biomarkers by which to monitor disease activity and therapeutic efficacy. Oral fluids may provide an accessible medium for analysis of such biomarkers. Previous studies have shown that activation of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kappa B) plays an important role in the pathogenesis of oral lichen pla...