Cachexia is known to be a deteriorating factor for survival of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but data related to obesity are limited. We observed that obese patients with COPD prescribed long-term noninvasive mechanical ventilation (NIMV) had better survival rate compared to nonobese patients. Therefore, we conducted a retrospective observational cohort study. Arch...

Abstract Background Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) in infants of diabetic mothers (IDMs) has been generally considered a benign condition, which usually regresses as the stimulus for insulin production disappears, resulting normalized left wall thickness 6 months life. However, these conclusions have based on small, mostly outdated cohort studies. Indeed, it recently shown that increased ma...

BACKGROUND The optimal patient selection of frail elderly persons undergoing rehabilitation in Geriatric Day Hospital (GDH) programs remains uncertain. This study was done to identify potential predictors of rehabilitation outcomes for these patients. METHODS This study is a retrospective cohort analysis of patients admitted to the rehabilitation program of our GDH, in Montreal, Canada, over ...

BACKGROUND It is important to include large sample sizes and different factors that influence the six-minute walking distance (6MWD) in order to propose reference equations for the six-minute walking test (6 MWT). OBJECTIVE To evaluate the influence of anthropometric, demographic, and physiologic variables on the 6 MWD of healthy subjects from different regions of Brazil to establish a refere...

We present an O(n4)-time and O(n2)-space algorithm that computes a subgraph of the minimum weight triangulation (MWT) of a general point set. The algorithm works by finding a collection of edges guaranteed to be in any locally minimal triangulation. We call this subgraph the LMT-skeleton. We also give a variant called the modified LMTskeleton that is both a more complete subgraph of the MWT and...

PURPOSE To determine whether the mean wall thickness (MWT) of the common carotid artery (CCA) measured by MRI is comparable to B-mode ultrasound (US) measurement of the intima-media thickness (IMT), an established marker of cardiovascular risk. MATERIALS AND METHODS As part of the two-year ORION trial, 43 patients with 16-79% stenosis by duplex US underwent high-resolution MRI and B-mode US e...

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of death and disability among young persons. A key to improve outcome for patients with TBI is to reduce the time from injury to definitive care by achieving high triage accuracy. Microwave technology (MWT) allows for a portable device to be used in the pre-hospital setting for detection of intracranial hematomas at the scene of injury, thereby ...

BACKGROUND Chronic heart failure (CHF) is a serious public health problem associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality. Cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) is a well established treatment for selected patients who do not respond to optimal drug treatment of CHF. AIM To assess the impact of CRT on the physical ability and quality of life (QoL) of patients with CHF. METHODS The s...

Purpose: This study was performed to test the effectiveness o f a formal supervised exercise program against a home-based exercise p rogram for both walking ability and quality o f life endpoints. Methods: Patients with arterial claudication were randomized to either a 12-week supervised exercise program (SUPEX) with weekly lectures relating to peripheral vascular disease or to a home exercise ...

Postoperative pain is a critical problem in clinical pain administration. Due to the unclear formation mechanism of postoperative pain, the treatment of postoperative pain is still in the symptomatic treatment stage and lacking satisfactory analgesic effect. Postoperative pain can be simulated by using a rat incision pain model. We observed changes in pain-related behavior of rats affected by t...