A technique for vascular reconstruction of pancreaticoduodenal allograft. A literature review and case report

In most cases, whole pancreaticoduodenal allograft vessels can be reconstructed using a segment of donor common iliac artery bifurcation. An alternative way to bridge the splenic artery and the superior mesenteric artery (SMA) is to use a short segment of distal SMA as an interposition graft, as described herein.     

踝肱指数和肱踝动脉脉搏波速度与血管舒张功能联合载脂蛋白B与载脂蛋白A-1比值对中青年冠心病血瘀证的预测价值研究

背景 冠心病属中医“胸痹心痛”范畴,其证候分布以血瘀证最为多见,与老年人相比,中青年血瘀证的发生率更高。本研究在团队前期研究基础上进行拓展,首次运用动脉弹性和血管内皮功能检测联合载脂蛋白比值诊断中青年冠心病血瘀证,旨在为早期发现中青年冠心病血瘀证提供新思路,也可为优化补充冠心病血瘀证的诊断标准提供参考。目的 探讨踝肱指数(ABI)、肱踝动脉脉搏波速度(baPWV)、血管舒张功能(FMD)联合载脂蛋白B与载脂蛋白A-1比值(apoB/apoA-1)与中青年冠心病血瘀证的关系及其预测价值。方法 选取2016年12月至2021年12月于中日友好医院中西医结合心脏内科住院治疗的中青年(<50岁)冠心病患者,并根据《冠心病血瘀证诊断标准》分为血瘀证组和非血瘀证组。收集患者首次冠状动脉造影前的ABI、baPWV、FMD和apoB/apoA-1等临床资料。采用多因素Logistic回归分析构建中青年冠心病患者血瘀证的预测模型,并采用受试者工作特征(ROC)曲线进行预测价值评价。结果 本研究共纳入中青年冠心病患者206例,其中血瘀证组127例,非血瘀证组79例。多因素Logistic回归分析结果...     

306名大学生错失恐惧与社交媒体倦怠的关系:睡眠质量和负性情绪的链式中介作用

目的 探讨大学生睡眠质量、负性情绪在错失恐惧与社交媒体倦怠间的中介作用。 方法 采用错失恐惧量表、社交媒体倦怠量表、匹兹堡睡眠质量指数量表、抑郁-焦虑-压力量表简体中文版对306名大学生进行调查。 结果 错失恐惧、社交媒体倦怠、睡眠质量和负性情绪之间呈两两正相关;错失恐惧能正向预测社交媒体倦怠;睡眠质量和负性情绪在错失恐惧和社交媒体倦怠之间起单独中介作用,且睡眠质量和负性情绪在错失恐惧与社交媒体倦怠之间起链式中介作用,负性情绪各维度效应皆成立。 结论 睡眠质量和负性情绪能够为错失恐惧对社交媒体倦怠的影响提供一个解释机制,大学生的错失恐惧既可以直接影响其社交媒体倦怠水平,也可以通过睡眠质量、负性情绪的独立中介效应以及睡眠质量-负性情绪的链式中介效应间接影响。     

Relative motion of lung and chest wall promotes uniform pleural space thickness

The pleural space is modeled in two dimensions as a thin layer of fluid separating a deformable membrane and a rigid surface containing a bump. We computed the steady-state membrane configuration and fluid pressure distribution during relative sliding of the two surfaces. For physiologically relevant values of membrane tension, shear flow-induced pressures near the bump and far-field pressure gradients are similar to those measured in vivo within the pleural space (e.g. Lai-Fook et al.) [J. Appl. Physiol.: Respirat. Environ. Exercise Physiol. 56 (1984) 1633-1639]. Deformation of the membrane over the bump suggests that the pressure field generated by the sliding motion promotes an even layer of fluid in the pleural space, preventing asperities from touching. Results also suggest a possible mechanism for pleural fluid redistribution during breathing, whereby irreversible fluid motion is associated with the deformability of the membrane.     

Diet salinity and vasopressin as reproduction modulators in the desert-dwelling golden spiny mouse (Acomys russatus)

The time for reproduction in mammals largely depends on the availability of water and food in their habitat. Therefore, in regions where rains are limited to definite seasons of the year, mammals presumably will restrict their breeding correspondingly. But while mammals living in predictable ecosystems would benefit by timing their season to an ultimate predictable cue, such as photoperiod, in unpredictable ecosystems (e.g., deserts) they will need to use a more proximate signal. We suggest a mechanism by which water shortage (low water content in plants) could act as a proximate cue for ending the reproductive season. The golden spiny mouse (Acomys russatus), a diurnal rodent living in extreme deserts, may face an increased dietary salt content as the summer progresses and the vegetation becomes dry. Under laboratory conditions, increased diet salinity lead to reproductive hiatus in females, notable in imperforated vagina, and a significant decrease in the ovaries, uteri, and body masses. In females treated with vasopressin (VP), a hormone expressed during water stress, the uteri and body masses have decreased significantly, and the ovaries exhibited an increased number of atretic follicles. VP has also led to a significant decrease in relative medullary thickness (RMT) of the kidney. It is thus suggested that VP could act as a modulator linking the reproductive system with water economy in desert rodents, possibly through its act on the energetic pathways.     

Efficacy and tolerance of recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator in patients with thrombotic or embolic occlusions of leg-arteries

Summary The efficacy and safety of recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator (rt-PA) was evaluated in 46 patients with thrombembolic arterial occlusions in leg arteries. rt-PA was given over 1–4 h with a maximum dose of 18 mg. The effect of rt-PA treatment was determined as patency of the occluded arteries in 44 different patients 14 days after treatment. In 41 patients at least one artery was recanalized (93%) by rt-PA, and in almost half of these patients (48%) no residual stenosis were detected after the lytic treatment. A slight residual stenosis was detected in 29% of the patients and a severe residual stenosis in 21%. An additional treatment with percutaneous transluminal angioplasty was performed in 23 of the 44 patients and successful in 21 (91%). In 8 patients an addition catheter-embolectomy was performed. No difference in patency rate was detected between patients with thrombotic and those with embolic occlusions. The age of the occlusion influenced the patency rate; occlusions under the age of 5 weeks showed a patency rate of 96% compared to 82% in older occlusions. The length of the occlusion did not have any influence on the outcome of the rt-PA treatment. From the results of this open study we conclude that a dose of up to 18 mg of rt-PA is both safe and effective in the treatment of thromboembolic occlusions in leg arteries.Abbreviations rt-PA recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator - GGT gamma-glutamyltransferase - SGOT aspartate aminotransferase - SGPT alanine aminotransferase - LDH lactate dehydrogenase - PTA percutaneous transluminal angioplasty Dedicated to Prof. Dr. N. Zöllner on the occasion of his 70th birthday     

EEG asymmetries may be affected by cranial and Brain parenchymal asymmetries

Summary The plagiocephaly index, an index that reflects an underlying anatomic asymmetry of the brain, was assessed in ten schizophrenic patients and its values were correlated with the lateral distribution of quantitatively evaluated EEG. The correlations between the index and alpha power at F7 were significant, positive for frontal asymmetry (frontal bulging) and negative for occipital flattening. We then studied ten normal subjects in an attempt to illuminate the contribution of several cephalic and cranial variables to the imbalance of alpha-afterdischarges (AD) of VEP recorded at O1–O2. The asymmetry index of AD was computed and correlated with asymmetries of CT-derived measures of occipital bone thickness, occipital lobe width, mastoid area, and sulcal asymmetry (the asymmetry of intraparietal sulcus location from the longitudinal fissure). With the exception of the sulcal variable all measures significantly covaried with alpha AD. These findings caution that it may be important to determine cranial and brain parenchymal asymmetries where brain laterality is pertinent to studies of EEG.     

Use of serum-free hormonally defined media to evaluate the effects of growth factors and inhibitors on proliferation of estrogen-responsive mammary and pituitary tumor cells in culture

Summary Serum-free defined media have been developed for assay of the mitogenic effects of growth factors on human MCF-7, human T-47D, and mouse COMMA-D mammary cells as well as for identification of mitogens and inhibitors of GH₄C₁ rat pituitary tumor cell growth. These lines were shown to grow in vivo in response to a variety of hormones including estrogens and thyroid hormones. With mammary cells, complete hormonally and nutritionally defined media were established that supported continuous passage at 50 to 90% of the serum stimulated rate. The strategy used to measure mitogens for mammary cells was to identify nutritional conditions where the growth rate was reduced greatly without impairing the response to picomolar to nanomolar concentration of growth factors. The effects of polypeptide growth factors and tissue extracts were estimated by their addition to basal medium and measuring cell number increases or labeled thymidine incorporation into DNA. In a variation of this methodology, the MTW9/PL2 rat mammary cells were used to identify secreted autocrine growth factors; nutritionally defined conditions were sought for growth of these rat cells in the complete absence of exogenous growth factors. The factors secreted into the medium were detected by bioassays with COMMA-D or MCF-7 mammary cell lines. The effects of growth factors-inhibitors on pituitary cells were measured by a related method; the GH₄C₁ cells were grown at less than optimal rates in a defined medium designated TRM-1. Addition of mitogens to TRM-1 stimulated pituitary cell growth whereas addition of inhibitors caused reduced levels of growth. The methods described in this report offer new means of assaying growth factors-inhibitors for a range of mammary and pituitary tumor cells.     

Identification of the three-element windkessel model incorporating a pressure-dependent compliance

A new one-step computational procedure is presented for estimating the parameters of the nonlinear three-element windkessel model of the arterial system incorporating a pressure-dependent compliance. The data required are pulsatile aortic pressure and flow. The basic assumptions are a steadystate periodic regime and a purely elastic compliant element. By stating two conditions, zero mean flow and zero mean power in the compliant element, peripheral and characteristic resistances are determined through simple closed form formulas as functions of mean values of the square of aortic pressure, the square of aortic flow, and the product of aortic pressure with aortic flow. The pressure across as well as the flow through the compliant element can be then obtained so allowing the calculation of volume variation and compliance as functions of pressure. The feasibility of this method is studied by applying it to both simulated and experimental data relative to different circulatory conditions and comparing the results with those obtained by an iterative parameter optimization algorithm and with the actual values when available. The conclusion is that the proposed method appears to be effective in identifying the three-element windkessel even in the case of nonlinear compliance.