BACKGROUND Residual paralysis associated with the use of long-acting muscle relaxants can delay recovery from anesthesia and surgery. The authors tested the hypothesis that use of shorter-acting neuromuscular blocking agents is associated with reductions in tracheal extubation times and intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay in patients undergoing cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass. ...

BACKGROUND The pair-rule gene, hairy, encodes a basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor and is required for patterning of the early Drosophila embryo and for morphogenesis of the embryonic salivary gland. Although hairy was shown to be expressed in the tracheal primordia and in surrounding mesoderm, whether hairy plays a role in tracheal development is not known. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Here, ...

Introduction: Tracheoesophageal fistula (TEF) is a rare condition, which could be life-threatening if diagnosed late or mismanaged. Post-intubation TEF is the most common form of acquired, non-malignant TEF and is usually associated with tracheal stenosis, which makes the treatment more challenging. Here, we present our experience of managing 21 patients with post-intubation TEF.   Materials & ...

Some studies have suggested that the polyphenolic compounds might reduce the occurrence of asthma symptoms. The aim of our experiments was to evaluate the effects of 21 days of the flavonoid Flavin7 administration on experimentally induced airway inflammation in ovalbumin-sensitized guinea pigs. We assessed tracheal smooth muscle reactivity by an in vitro muscle-strip method; changes in airway ...

Aim use of inhalational insulin was limited due to its high cost and its potential to produce respiratory adverse effects. So current study was designed to evaluate the acute effects of insulin on airway reactivity and protective effects of salbutamol and ipratropium against insulin induced airway hyper-responsiveness on isolated tracheal smooth muscle of guinea pig. Material and methods: effec...

BACKGROUND The use of beta blockers is limited by their ability to produce bronchospasm in asthmatics. Third generation beta-blockers like Nebivolol may show better tolerability because they may augment the release of nitric oxide (NO) from endothelial cells. However the involvement of NO in the respiratory effect of Nebivolol remains controversial. The present study, carried out on isolated tr...

Cooling intrathoracic airways by filling the pulmonary circulation with cold blood alters pulmonary mechanoreceptor discharge. To determine whether this initiates reflex changes that could contribute to airway obstruction, we measured changes in tracheal smooth muscle tension and bronchial arterial flow evoked by cooling. In nine chloralose-anesthetized open-chest dogs, the right pulmonary arte...

The effects on muscle fasciculations and ease of tracheal intubation of pretreatment with fazadinium before administration of succinylcholine were evaluated in 85 patients. Four dose levels of fazadinium evaluated were 0.05 mg . kg-1, 0.075 mg . kg-1, 0.10 mg . kg-1 and 0.15 mg . kg-1. The 0.05 mg . kg-1 dose did not always prevent succinylcholine-induced muscle fasciculations. The 0.15 mg . kg...

BACKGROUND Inhalational insulin was withdrawn from market in 2007 due to its potential to produce airway hyper-reactivity and bronchoconstriction. So we explored the possible mechanism underlying the acute contractile effects of insulin and protective effects of beclomethasone against insulin induced airway hyper-responsiveness on isolated tracheal smooth muscle of guinea pig in vitro. METHOD...