Increasing lung volume increases upper airway patency and decreases airway resistance and collapsibility. The role of diaphragm contraction in producing these changes remains unclear. This study was undertaken to determine the effect of selective diaphragm contraction, induced by phrenic nerve stimulation, on upper airway collapsibility and the extent to which any observed change was attributab...

Intracardiac blood flow patterns are potentially important to cardiac pumping efficiency. However, these complex flow patterns remain incompletely characterized both in health and disease. We hypothesized that normal left ventricular (LV) blood flow patterns would preferentially optimize a portion of the end-diastolic volume (LVEDV) for effective and rapid systolic ejection by virtue of locatio...

Because there is little quantitative information about the hemodynamics of left ventricular diastolic events in man, single-plane cineangiographic left ventricular volume curves were quantitatively analyzed at 16.6 msec intervals to evaluate the rate and amount of left ventricular filling during the early passive stage of filling and during the time of atrial contraction. The peak rate of passi...

BACKGROUND Increasing evidence supports a neurodevelopmental model for bipolar disorder (BD), with adolescence as a critical period in its development. Developmental abnormalities of anterior paralimbic and heteromodal frontal cortices, key structures in emotional regulation processes and central in BD, are implicated. However, few longitudinal studies have been conducted, limiting understandin...

BACKGROUND Some of patients with an intact gall bladder develop acute cholecystitis or have gall bladder stone formation after endoscopic sphincterotomy. Endoscopic sphincterotomy may affect gall bladder motility. AIMS To prospectively evaluate longterm effect of endoscopic sphincterotomy on gall bladder motility. PATIENTS Thirty two patients with an intact gall bladder (15 with and 17 with...

Identifying patients at high risk for the occurrence of atrial fibrillation is one means by which subsequent thromboembolic complications may be prevented. Left atrial enlargement is associated with progression of atrial remodeling, which is a substrate for atrial fibrillation, but impaired atrial pump function is also another aspect of the remodeling. Our objective was to differentiate patient...

Because there is little quantitative information about the hemodynamics of left ventricular diastolic events in man, single-plane cineangiographic left ventricular volume curves were quantitatively analyzed at 16.6 msec intervals to evaluate the rate and amount of left ventricular filling during the early passive stage of filling and during the time of atrial contraction. The peak rate of passi...

Airway relaxation in response to isoprenaline, sodium nitroprusside (SNP) and electrical field stimulation (EFS) was compared under static and dynamic conditions. The capacity of relaxants to reduce airway stiffness and, thus, potentially contribute to bronchodilation was also investigated. Relaxation responses were recorded in fluid filled bronchial segments from pigs under static conditions a...