Over years, the number of patients requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation (PMV) in ICU has increased. Trends in the numbers of patients requiring PMV are of interest to health service planners because they consume a disproportionate amount of healthcare resources, and have high illness costs.1 PMV is defined as need of invasive mechanical ventilation for consecutive 21 days for at least 6 h...

BACKGROUND Percutaneous mitral balloon valvuloplasty (PMV) results in good immediate results, particularly in patients with echocardiographic scores (Echo-Sc) < or =8. However, which variables relate to long-term outcome is unclear. METHODS AND RESULTS We report the immediate and long-term clinical follow-up (mean, 4.2+/-3.7 years; range, 0.5 to 15) of 879 patients who underwent 939 PMV proce...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to evaluate the short- term effects of percutaneous mitral valvuloplasty (PMV) on coexisting AR. METHODS Clinical, echocardiographic and catheterization data from hospital records of a total of 327 patients with rheumatic mitral stenosis who underwent PMV at a tertiary centre were retrospectively reviewed and aortic regurgitation changes 48 hours post PMV ...

Physiological conditions of low leptin levels like those observed during negative energy balance are usually characterized by the suppression of luteinizing hormone (LH) secretion and fertility. Leptin administration restores LH levels and reproductive function. Leptin action on LH secretion is thought to be mediated by the brain. However, the neuronal population that mediates this effect is st...

This study was undertaken to determine the topographic organization of connections between the forelimb representations of the ventral premotor cortex (PMv) and the primary motor cortex (M1). Intracortical microstimulation techniques were used in three experimentally naive squirrel monkeys to delineate the M1 and PMv forelimb representations in the hemisphere contralateral to the dominant hand....

AIMS We sought to investigate the factors associated with restenosis and its potential association with late clinical deterioration after successful percutaneous mitral valvuloplasty (PMV). METHODS AND RESULTS We analysed echocardiographic (median 74 months) and clinical (median 109 months) follow-up data of 329 patients who achieved procedural success, defined as mitral valve area (MVA) > or...

INTRODUCTION The outcomes of patients ventilated for longer than average are unclear, in part because of the lack of an accepted definition of prolonged mechanical ventilation (PMV). To better understand the implications of PMV provision, we compared one-year health outcomes between two common definitions of PMV as well as between PMV patients and those ventilated for shorter periods of time. ...

During contractions, regulation of microvascular oxygen partial pressure (Pmv(O2)), which drives blood-myocyte O2 flux, is a function of skeletal muscle fiber type and oxidative capacity and can be altered by exercise training. The kinetics of Pmv(O2) during contractions in predominantly fast-twitch muscles evinces a more rapid fall to far lower levels compared with slow-twitch counterparts. Pe...

This study reports the clinical follow-up (13 +/- 1 months) of 100 consecutive patients who underwent percutaneous mitral balloon valvotomy (PMV). Echocardiographic (n = 32) and cardiac catheterization (n = 37) data from this group are also included. Patients were divided into two groups by an echocardiographic score. PMV resulted in a good hemodynamic result (post-PMV mitral valve area, greate...

Inhibitory propriospinal neurons with diffuse projections onto upper limb motoneurons have been revealed in humans using peripheral nerve stimulation. This system is supposed to mediate descending inhibition to motoneurons, to prevent unwilling muscle activity. However, the corticospinal control onto inhibitory propriospinal neurons has never been investigated so far in humans. We addressed the...