A thermally induced increase of a standard roughness parameter (R (a)) and of cell sizes has been revealed to reflect an increased level of their resistance to hyperthermia.”
“Objective: The aim of the study was evaluating the diagnostic value of plasma matrix metalloproteinase-(MMP)-2 and -9 and tissue inhibitor of MMP-1 (TIMP-1) for endoleak see more detection after endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR).
Report: Consecutive EVAR patients (n = 17) with endoleak and matched controls without endoleak (n = 20) were prospectively enrolled. Increased levels of MMP-9 were observed in patients with endoleak (P < 0.001). Regression analysis showed no significant influence of age,
sex or abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) size. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of plasma MMP-9 levels showed that a cutoff value of 55.18 ng ml(-1) resulted in 100% sensitivity and 96% specificity with an AUC value of 0.988 (P < 0.001) to detect endoleak.
Conclusions: Plasma MMP-9 levels appear to discriminate between patients with and without an endoleak with high sensitivity and specificity. (C) 2011 European Society for Vascular Surgery. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Objective:
The genotoxic vesicant sulphur mustard [bis-2-(chloroethyl)sulphide] is a chemical warfare agent which is easily available due to its relatively find more simple synthesis. Thus, sulphur mustard is a potential agent for mass contamination. In this study, we focused on sulphur mustard toxicity and decontamination in a rat model using commercially available detergent mixtures for dermal decontamination.
Methods: Male Wistar rats were percutaneously treated
with sulphur mustard and subjected to wet decontamination 2 min postexposure. Commercially produced detergents Neodekont (TM), Argos (TM), Dermogel (TM) and FloraFree (TM) were tested for their decontamination Epacadostat concentration efficacy against an exposed group and their protective ratios determined.
Results and conclusion: The results showed that all tested detergent solutions produced an increase in the median lethal dose [LD50 = 9.83 (5.87-13.63) mg.kg(-1)] in comparison to controls, which led to increased survival of experimental animals. In general, all tested detergents provided modest decontamination efficacy (PR = 2.0-5.7). The highest protective ratio (5.7) was consistently achieved with Argos (TM). Accordingly, Argos (TM) should be considered in further investigation of mass casualty decontamination.”
“The false-negative rate of ultrasound-guided sextant prostate biopsy has been estimated to be as high as 35 %. A significant percentage (10-35 %) of these prostate cancers diagnosed at a second or later attempt are high grade and, therefore, potentially lethal. We discuss the feasibility for performing optically guided biopsy using elastic scattering spectroscopy (ESS) to reduce sampling errors and improve sensitivity.