OBJECTIVES We intended to investigate whether ischemic preconditioning (IP) enhances myocardial performance in patients who undergo off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). DESIGN A controlled, randomized, prospective study. SETTING A university hospital. PATIENTS Thirty-two patients with left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) or two-vessel heart disease (including LAD) wh...

OBJECTIVES The study was conducted to determine whether trained key informants (KI) could identify children with impairments. DESIGN Trained KI identified children with defined impairments/epilepsy who were then examined by a medical team at a nearby assessment centre (Key Informant Methodology: KIM). A population-based household randomised sample survey was also conducted for comparing the p...

Oxaliplatin-based regimens are standard treatments for the patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) and advanced gastric cancer (AGC). However, owing to hepatic sinusoidal obstruction syndrome (SOS), the use of oxaliplatin sometimes results in splenomegaly. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the correlation between chemotherapy-associated changes of noninvasive liver fibrosis indices and...

PURPOSE To scan a volunteer population using 3.0T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MRI of the left ventricular (LV) structure and function in healthy volunteers has been reported extensively at 1.5T. MATERIALS AND METHODS A population of 1528 volunteers was scanned. A standardized approach was taken to acquire steady-state free precession (SSFP) LV data in the short-axis plane, and images we...

BACKGROUND Fluid resuscitation remains a cornerstone in the management of acute bleeding. According to Starling's "Three-compartment model", four-times more crystalloids have the same volume effect as colloids. However, this volume-replacement ratio remains a controversial issue as it may be affected by the degradation of the endothelial glycocalyx layer, a situation often found in the critical...

Spectroscopic studies of analog terrestrial mineral assemblages are necessary to develop criteria to identify similar environments on Mars. We use visible/near infrared (VNIR) laboratory, field, and remotely acquired spectral data to identify the iron-bearing and hydrous minerals of Rio Tinto, Spain, an astrobiological analog. Mineralogy evolves from iron sulfateand oxiderich (jarosite, rozenit...

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. onbehalf The BSCMR Valve Consortium Background Patients with low-flow aortic stenosis (LF-AS) have higher mortality than those high-flow severe AS. conventional echocardiographic definition LF-AS is an indexed stroke volume (SVi) <35ml/m2. Whether this cut-off translates to cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR), and how CMR SVi ...

Background: Currently, ARTs are of indispensable importance in treatment of human infertility. While ARTs are considered to be safe, some studies suggest that ARTs manipulations may perturb the epigenetic information and subsequently the health of the offspring. To examine these events further, this study was conducted to assess the effect of superovulation, in vitro culture and vitrification o...