Primary tuberculous nasal polypi—A case report

Primary tuberculous pathology in nasolpolypi is a rare condition. A case of bilateral ethmoidal polypi with tubercular lesion diagnosed on histopathologlcal examination is being reported and the available relevant literature has been reviewed.     

A comprehensive strategy for the evaluation and triage of the chest pain patient: A cost comparison study

BACKGROUND: Our objective was to determine the cost-effectiveness of a comprehensive, risk-based triage system, composed of multiple critical pathways, with the use of early myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) in low-risk patients. We found previously that a chest pain evaluation system that uses MPI in low-risk patients was safe and effective, but the cost-effectiveness of this approach was not studied. METHODS AND RESULTS: We compared two groups. The Acute Cardiac Team (ACT) group (n = 874) was assigned prospectively to 1 of 4 risk levels by emergency department (ED) physicians. Level 1, 2, and 3 patients were admitted; level 4 patients were evaluated in the ED. Level 3 and 4 patients underwent ED MPI. The control group (n = 713) represented consecutive patients evaluated in the prior year according to standard care and assigned retrospectively to an ACT level based on the presenting electrocardiographic and clinical data. Record and hospital administrative data were assessed for clinical variables, outcomes, lengths of stay, and all expenses incurred within 30 days of the index visit. The baseline characteristics of the two groups were similar, including age, sex, myocardial infarction prevalence, and 30-day revascularization rates within each level or between the two groups. Mean costs per encounter were reduced for the ACT patients for each level, which was significant when all patients were compared ($5,030 +/- $7,081 vs $6,044 +/- $10,432, P =.02). Use of MPI in the low-risk patients was associated with reduced costs (level 3, $4,958 +/- $4,948 vs $5,051 +/- $7,036; level 4, $1,529 +/- $2,664 vs $1,794 +/- $6,854) and was associated with a significantly lower angiography rate and shorter length of stay. CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of a comprehensive strategy for chest pain evaluation and triage reduced overall costs for patients with chest pain on presentation. Acute MPI in the ED setting did not increase net cost.     

Effects in cats of inhibition of nitric oxide synthesis on cerebral vasodilation and endothelium-derived relaxing factor from acetylcholine.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: We investigated the chemical identity of the endothelium-derived relaxing factor generated by acetylcholine in cerebral microvessels by studying the effects and mechanism of action of inhibitors of nitric oxide synthesis from arginine on the vasodilation and endothelium-derived relaxing factor production induced by topical application of acetylcholine in cerebral arterioles. METHODS: We determined cerebral arteriolar dilation and endothelium-derived relaxing factor production by bioassay in anesthetized cats equipped with cranial windows during superfusion of 10(-7) M acetylcholine before and after administration of either NG-monomethyl L-arginine or NG-nitro-L-arginine, two inhibitors of nitric oxide synthesis. RESULTS: NG-Nitro-L-arginine abolished the vasodilation from acetylcholine and eliminated the production of endothelium-derived relaxing factor in the bioassay experiments. NG-Monomethyl L-arginine had no effect on the response to acetylcholine in the absence of pretreatment. However, after pretreatment with the detergent sodium dodecyl sulfate to increase cell membrane permeability, the inhibitor had effects identical to those of NG-nitro-L-arginine. L-Arginine reversed the effects of the inhibitors of nitric oxide synthesis. Neither inhibitor affected baseline vascular caliber, nor did they generate a vasoconstrictor agent in the bioassay experiments. The two inhibitors of nitric oxide synthesis did not affect the response to nitroprusside or adenosine, showing that the effect on responses to acetylcholine was specific. Also, the blockade of the response to acetylcholine induced by the inhibitors of nitric oxide synthesis was unaffected by treatment with superoxide dismutase and catalase, showing that the effect was not mediated by oxygen radicals. CONCLUSION: The endothelium-derived relaxing factor generated by acetylcholine in cerebral arterioles of cats is either nitric oxide or a nitric oxide-containing substance. The effect of these inhibitors on the response to acetylcholine is mediated by inhibition of the synthesis of nitric oxide. There is no involvement of radicals, and no vasoconstrictor agent is generated.     

糖化血清蛋白测定对糖尿病监控临床意义的探讨

目的：对临床确诊糖尿病患同时测定血清葡萄糖(Glu)及糖化血清蛋白(GSP)的含量，观察二的关系，以及糖化血清蛋白水平对于评价近期(2—3周)糖尿病患血糖在体内变化的临床意义进行了观察。方法：血清葡萄糖、糖化血清蛋白测定均采用酶法测定。结果：178例糖尿病患Glu、GSP均正常3l例占17．4％；Glu、GSP均增高107例占60．1％；Glu正常、GSP增高15例占8．43％；Glu增高、GSP正常25例占14％。结论：糖化血清蛋白的含量不受即时血糖的影响，二的变化不成比例性，对评价糖尿病患2～3周病情的控制是一项灵敏可靠的指标，尤其对于住院病人的治疗与监控有一定的意义。     

Applying spatial distribution analysis techniques to classification of 3D medical images

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this paper is to classify 3D medical images by analyzing spatial distributions to model and characterize the arrangement of the regions of interest (ROIs) in 3D space. METHODS AND MATERIAL: Two methods are proposed for facilitating such classification. The first method uses measures of similarity, such as the Mahalanobis distance and the Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence, to compute the difference between spatial probability distributions of ROIs in an image of a new subject and each of the considered classes represented by historical data (e.g., normal versus disease class). A new subject is predicted to belong to the class corresponding to the most similar dataset. The second method employs the maximum likelihood (ML) principle to predict the class that most likely produced the dataset of the new subject. RESULTS: The proposed methods have been experimentally evaluated on three datasets: synthetic data (mixtures of Gaussian distributions), realistic lesion-deficit data (generated by a simulator conforming to a clinical study), and functional MRI activation data obtained from a study designed to explore neuroanatomical correlates of semantic processing in Alzheimer's disease (AD). CONCLUSION: Performed experiments demonstrated that the approaches based on the KL divergence and the ML method provide superior accuracy compared to the Mahalanobis distance. The later technique could still be a method of choice when the distributions differ significantly, since it is faster and less complex. The obtained classification accuracy with errors smaller than 1% supports that useful diagnosis assistance could be achieved assuming sufficiently informative historic data and sufficient information on the new subject.