BACKGROUND Defibrillator lead malfunction is a potential long-term complication in patients with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD). The aim of this study was to determine the incidence and causes of lead malfunction necessitating surgical revision and to evaluate 2 approaches to treat lead malfunction. METHODS AND RESULTS We included 1317 consecutive patients with an ICD implant...

Therapeutic and subtherapeutic use of veterinary drugs has increased the risk of residue contamination in animal food products. Antibiotics such as tetracycline are used for mastitis treatment of lactating cows. Milk expressed from treated cows before the withdrawal period has elapsed may contain tetracycline residue. This study developed a simple surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopic (SERS) met...

Communications to the Editor 3 Burnie JP. Antigen detection in invasive aspergillosis. J Immunol Methods 1991; 143:187-95 4 Van Cutsenss J, Meulemans L, Van Gerven F, Stynsen D. Detection of circulating gahactomannan by Pastorex Aspergillus in experimental invasive aspergillosis. Mycoses 1990; 33:61-9 5 Hashiguchi K, Wada H, Yamada 0, Yawata Y, Yoshida K, Okimoto N, et al. A case of chronic mye...

We have tested the characteristics of the method of Iwata and Nishikaze (Clin Chem 25: 1317, 1979). The linearity, sensitivity, and precision are satisfactory and the reactivity of benzethonium chloride with various proteins (albumin, immunoglobulins) is the same. The method has been compared with Meulemans's technique (Clin Chim Acta 5: 757, 1960), routinely used in our laboratories, by analys...

TGF/Smad3 promotes renal fibrosis, but the mechanisms that regulate profibrotic genes remain unclear. We hypothesized that miR-192, a microRNA expressed in the kidney may mediate renal fibrosis in a Smad3-dependent manner. Microarray and real-time PCR demonstrated a tight association between upregulation of miR-192 in the fibrotic kidney and activation of TGF/Smad signaling. Deletion of Smad7 p...