BACKGROUND The VIO soft-coagulation system (SCS) is a new device for tissue coagulation. The current study evaluated the efficacy of the SCS when used for liver resection. METHODS The 252 patients were divided into 2 groups; in 155 patients (conventional group), liver transection was performed using an ultrasonic dissector and saline-coupled bipolar electrocautery for hemostasis. In 97 patien...

INTRODUCTION Although burst spinal cord stimulation (SCS) has been reported to reduce neuropathic pain, no study has explicitly investigated how the different parameters that define burst SCS may modulate its efficacy. The effectiveness of burst SCS to reduce neuronal responses to noxious stimuli by altering stimulation parameters was evaluated in a rat model of cervical radiculopathy. METHOD...

We conducted a systematic review of the literature on the effectiveness of spinal cord stimulation (SCS) in relieving pain and improving functioning for patients with failed back surgery syndrome and complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). We also reviewed SCS complications. Literature searches yielded 583 articles, of which seven met the inclusion criteria for the review of SCS effectiveness, a...

OBJECTIVES Prognostic factors for progression of benign adrenocortical adenomas (AI) remain poorly known. We assessed the usefulness of (131)I-6-beta-iodomethylnorcholesterol scintigraphy (IMS) to predict the occurrence of adrenal hyperfunction or mass enlargement. DESIGN Fifty-one consecutive inpatients with unilateral AI and normal 24-h urinary free cortisol (UFC) were enrolled in a multice...

Long-term spinal cord stimulation (SCS) applied to cranial thoracic SC segments exerts antiarrhythmic and cardioprotective actions in the canine heart in situ. We hypothesized that remodeling of intrinsic cardiac neuronal and synaptic properties occur in canines subjected to long-term SCS, specifically that synaptic efficacy may be preferentially facilitated at high presynaptic nerve stimulatio...

Neuregulins play crucial roles in early development of Schwann cells (SCs), but their roles in the activities of SCs during denervation and reinnervation of muscle are less clear. In the present study, the Tet-On system has been used in transgenic mice to enable inducible expression of a mutant, constitutively active neuregulin receptor (ErbB2) in SCs. This induction simulates neuregulin signal...

Spinal Cord Stimulation (SCS) is a neurostimulation technique used to alleviate several kinds of chronic pain. Computer modeling of SCS is a powerful tool in predicting the effects of an electrical stimulus on nerve fiber activation. The UT-SCS, developed at the University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands, has provided useful insights on the mechanisms of SCS. Nevertheless, this software pr...

Insulators are DNA elements that establish independent transcriptional domains within eukaryotic genomes. The Drosophila scs and scs' insulators localize near the borders of a structural domain in the polytene chromosomes, known as a puff, produced by transcription of the 87A heat shock protein (hsp) genes. It has been suggested that scs and scs' are boundary elements that delimit this deconden...

BACKGROUND While much progress has been made in understanding stem cell (SC) function, a complete description of the molecular mechanisms regulating SCs is not yet established. This lack of knowledge is a major barrier holding back the discovery of therapeutic uses of SCs. We investigated the value of a novel meta-analysis of microarray gene expression in mouse SCs to aid the elucidation of reg...

BACKGROUND Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is a form of neuromodulation, used to treat chronic neuropathic pain refractory to conventional medical management. Spinal cord stimulators are treatment options when intractable chronic pain has not responded to more conventional treatment modalities. Currently, the use of SCS is contraindicated in pregnancy. Nevertheless, many SCS/neuromodulation recip...