PURPOSE To demonstrate the feasibility of preoperative Hyperfractionated Accelerated RadioTherapy (preop-HART) in rectal cancer and to explain the rationales to switch from postoperative HART to preoperative HART. METHODS AND MATERIALS Fifty-two consecutive patients were introduced in successive Phase I trials since 1989. In trial 89-01, postoperative HART (48 Gy in 3 weeks) was applied in 20...

Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) reduces blood pressure in obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) patients, as well as in patients with resistant hypertension. The effect of CPAP is directly related to treatment compliance [1–3]. Observational studies have shown a reduction in cardiovascular mortality risk in severe OSA patients treated with CPAP and adequate compliance [4–6]. A recent random...

In this study, an electroactive polymer (EAP), poly(2,5-bis(N-methyl-N-hexylamino)phenylene vinylene) (BAM-PPV) was investigated as a potential alternative surface pretreatment for hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI))-based aerospace coatings. BAM-PPV was tested as a pretreatment coating on an aerospace aluminum alloy (AA2024-T3) substrate in combination with a non-Cr(VI) epoxy primer and a polyurethan...

The administration of interleukin-2 (IL-2) may induce complete remissions in acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) patients with a low proportion of residual bone marrow (BM) blasts. To confirm this preliminary observation, we treated 14 AML patients with advanced disease and with a residual BM blastosis that ranged between 7% and 24% with repeated 5-day cycles of high-dose recombinant IL-2 administ...

Older patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have limited treatment options and a poor prognosis, thereby warranting novel therapeutic strategies. We evaluated the efficacy of lenalidomide as frontline therapy for older AML patients. In this phase 2 study, patients 60 years of age or older with untreated AML received highdose (HD) lenalidomide at 50 mg daily for up to 2 28-day cycles. If pa...

OBJECTIVES We performed in vitro validation of a non-invasive skin-mounted system that could allow quantification of anteroposterior (AP) laxity in the outpatient setting. METHODS A total of 12 cadaveric lower limbs were tested with a commercial image-free navigation system using trackers secured by bone screws. We then tested a non-invasive fabric-strap system. The lower limb was secured at ...

We give combinatorial and computational characterizations of the NP search problems definable in the bounded arithmetic theories T 2 2 and T 3 2 . By a search problem in full generality we mean simply a binary relation R(x, y) such that ∀x∃yR(x, y) holds. The search task is: given an instance x find a solution y such that R(x, y) holds. The most important class of search problems are NP search ...

background: this study was designed to investigate the accuracy of dobutamine stress echocardiography (dse) in detecting the post-revascularization recovery rate of contractile reserve (cr) in ischemic myocardium. methods: a total of 112 segments from seven patients with low ejection fraction (<35%) and coronary artery disease were evaluated with dse one week before and 12 weeks after coronary ...

Background & Aims of the Study: Chromium is widely detected in surface waters and underground waters, which usually appear as Cr(VI), and Cr(III), at sites associated with industrial activities. Cr(VI), in effluent streams with a high level of mobility and notorious mutagenic and carcinogenic toxicity; thus Cr(III) does not have much mobility in soil. So, converting it into less h...

BACKGROUND There are limited data describing the long-term outcome of patients with concomitant COPD who develop ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). METHODS A total of 11,118 consecutive patients with STEMI enrolled in the web-based Registro Regionale Angioplastiche Emilia-Romagna (REAL) registry were followed-up and stratified according to COPD presence or not. At 3-year foll...