BACKGROUND Late complications after Fontan procedure may be due to the absence of pump and pulsatile pulmonary blood flow in this type of palliation. Our aim was to quantify the degree of pulsation by echocardiographic method in patients with extracardiac total cavopulmonary connection (ECTCPC) in comparison with biventricular circulation and few cases of pulsatile Fontan. METHODS In a case s...

UNLABELLED In PET-based patient monitoring, metabolic tumor changes occurring between PET scans are most often assessed visually or by measuring only a few parameters (tumor volume or uptake), neglecting most of the image content. We propose and evaluate a parametric imaging (PI) method to assess tumor changes at the voxel level. METHODS Seventy-eight pairs of tumor images obtained from basel...

The WRKY transcription factor family has more than 70 members in the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) genome, and some of them are involved in plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. This study evaluated the role of WRKY45 in regulating phosphate (Pi) uptake in Arabidopsis. WRKY45 was localized in the nucleus and mainly expressed in roots. During Pi starvation, WRKY45 expression was m...

OBJECTIVE (31)P magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is useful for evaluating metabolic disturbances in dermatomyositis (DM). However, short-term alterations of metabolic parameters such as Pi/PCr (inorganic phosphate/phosphocreatine) have not been assessed in detail, although they may reveal insights into the origin of the known long-term changes. We therefore performed real-time functional (...

In order to clarify the mode of inactivation of alpha1-proteinase inhibitor (alpha 1-PI) in pneumonia, 21 immunocompetent patients and 19 immunocompromised patients with acute pneumonia (Groups I and II) were studied. Nine patients successfully treated for pneumonia and 10 healthy volunteers served as controls (Groups III and IV, respectively). The concentrations of alpha 1-PI, elastase and mye...

conclusions although nurses are the most involved occupational group in documented ns, surgeons are the most important high risk hcw who need pep. no case of seroconversion has taken place as a result of pi. this means that the current pep may have an effective role in hiv prevention. results from a total of 369 cases, 273 (74%) were hcws, among which nurses (70%) were the most involved employe...

BACKGROUND Congenital bilateral absence of the vas deferens (CBAVD) is presumed to occur prenatally and is present in over 99% of adult males with cystic fibrosis (CF). AIMS To describe ultrasonic features in male children with CF. We aimed to describe urogenital anomalies, comparing pancreatic sufficient and insufficient CF patients. METHODS Pelvic and scrotal ultrasonography were performe...

The tumour suppressor gene PTEN (also called MMAC1 or TEP1) is somatically mutated in a variety of cancer types [1] [2] [3] [4]. In addition, germline mutation of PTEN is responsible for two dominantly inherited, related cancer syndromes called Cowden disease and Bannayan-Ruvalcaba-Riley syndrome [4]. PTEN encodes a dual-specificity phosphatase that inhibits cell spreading and migration partly ...