A prospective randomized trial of endoscopic versus open saphenous vein harvesting technique for coronary artery bypass graft surgery

Purpose

The great saphenous vein harvested with a traditional open technique often results in leg wound complications. An endoscopic harvesting technique may decrease incidence of these complications.

Methods and material

Fifty consecutive patients having elective primary coronary artery bypass surgery were prospectively and randomly assigned to either endoscopic great saphenous vein harvesting (EVH—group A) or open great saphenous vein harvesting (OVH—group B). Both groups were demographically similar and received identical management. Leg wound healing was evaluated at discharge, 1 week, 1 month and 6 months for evidence of complications.

Result

The patient in endoscopic vein harvesting group had increased harvest time and an insignificant increase in vein injuries at the time of harvesting but decreased incision closure times when compared with traditional longitudinal open vein harvesting. Conversion from endoscopy to a traditional longitudinal open vein harvest occurred in 5 % of patients. Leg wound complications were significantly reduced postoperatively in the endoscopic vein harvesting group in comparison with the open vein harvesting group. Histological evaluation of structural integrity of vein samples shows that there is no significant difference between both the groups. No patient was readmitted to the hospital for leg wound complications in either group.

Conclusion

EVH is a safe, reliable method for saphenous vein harvesting. The best indication for EVH may be in patients who are in increased risk for wound infection and in whom cosmetics is a major concern.

     

Synthesis of nanoscale CuO via precursor method and its application in the catalytic epoxidation of styrene

Nanoscale CuO with diameters in the range of 7–8 nm has been synthesized via a two-step precipitation–calcination method using copper(ii) isonicotinate tetrahydrate as the precursor. The first step involves the room temperature stirring of an alkaline ethanolic solution of the precursor which gives a non-crystalline CuO species, while the second step involves the calcination of the product of the first step at 180 °C to form nanocrystalline CuO which has been characterized by PXRD, TEM, SEM, H₂-TPR and Raman spectroscopy, etc. The CuO material has shown excellent catalytic activity in the oxidation of styrene using TBHP as the oxidizing agent leading to complete styrene conversion with more than 95% styrene oxide selectivity at the end of 6 h. The oxide catalyst can be reused for at least 6 successive runs without significant loss in activity.

Nanoscale CuO with diameters in the range of 7–8 nm has been synthesized via a two-step precipitation–calcination method using copper(ii) isonicotinate tetrahydrate as the precursor.     

Can homeopathic arsenic remedy combat arsenic poisoning in humans exposed to groundwater arsenic contamination?: a preliminary report on first human trial

Groundwater arsenic (As) has affected millions of people globally distributed over 20 countries. In parts of West Bengal (India) and Bangladesh alone, over 100 million people are at risk, but supply of As-free water is grossly inadequate. Attempts to remove As by using orthodox medicines have mostly been unsuccessful. A potentized homeopathic remedy, Arsenicum Album-30, was administered to a group of As affected people and thereafter the As contents in their urine and blood were periodically determined. The activities of various toxicity marker enzymes and compounds in the blood, namely aspartate amino transferase, alanine amino transferase, acid phosphatase, alkaline phosphatase, lipid peroxidation and reduced glutathione, were also periodically monitored up to 3 months. The results are highly encouraging and suggest that the drug can alleviate As poisoning in humans.     

Nanoimprinted Hybrid Metal-Semiconductor Plasmonic Multilayers with Controlled Surface Nano Architecture for Applications in NIR Detectors

We present a proof of concept for tunable plasmon resonance frequencies in a core shell nano-architectured hybrid metal-semiconductor multilayer structure, with Ag as the active shell and ITO as the dielectric modulation media. Our method relies on the collective change in the dielectric function within the metal semiconductor interface to control the surface. Here we report fabrication and optical spectroscopy studies of large-area, nanostructured, hybrid silver and indium tin oxide (ITO) structures, with feature sizes below 100 nm and a controlled surface architecture. The optical and electrical properties of these core shell electrodes, including the surface plasmon frequency, can be tuned by suitably changing the order and thickness of the dielectric layers. By varying the dimensions of the nanopillars, the surface plasmon wavelength of the nanopillar Ag can be tuned from 650 to 690 nm. Adding layers of ITO to the structure further shifts the resonance wavelength toward the IR region and, depending on the sequence and thickness of the layers within the structure, we show that such structures can be applied in sensing devices including enhancing silicon as a photodetection material.     

Identification of murine B cell lines that undergo somatic hypermutation focused to A:T and G:C residues

Activation-induced deaminase (AID) is the master regulator of class switch recombination (CSR) and somatic hypermutation (SHM), but the mechanisms regulating AID function are obscure. The differential pattern of switch plasmid activity in three IgM(+)/AID(+) and two IgG(+)/AID(+) B cell lines prompted an analysis of global gene expression to discover the origin of these cells. Gene profiling suggested that the IgG(+)/AID(+) B cell lines derived from germinal center B cells. Analysis of SHM potential demonstrates that the IgVkappa domains are inducibly diversified at high rate during in vitro culture. The mutation spectra focused to A:T base pairs, revealing a component of the hypermutation program that occurs preferentially during phase 2 of SHM. The A:T error spectra were analyzed and were not characteristic of polymerase eta activity. A differential pattern of three consensus motifs used for A:T base substitutions was observed in WT and Poleta-, Msh2- and Msh6-deficient B cells. Strikingly, mutations in our B cell lines recapitulated the mutable motif profile for Poleta and Msh2 deficiency, respectively, and suggest that an additional pathway for the generation of A:T mutations in SHM is conserved in mouse and human.