OBJECTIVE To assess the effect of sildenafil, a phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitor, on digital ulcer (DU) healing in systemic sclerosis (SSc). METHODS Randomised, placebo-controlled study in patients with SSc to assess the effect of sildenafil 20 mg or placebo, three times daily for 12 weeks, on ischaemic DU healing. The primary end point was the time to healing for each DU. Time to healing w...

Monitoring of fetal heart rate (FHR) is an important measure of fetal wellbeing during the months of pregnancy. Previous works on estimating FHR variability from Doppler ultrasound (DUS) signal mainly through autocorrelation analysis showed low accuracy when compared with heart rate variability (HRV) computed from fetal electrocardiography (fECG). In this work, we proposed a method based on emp...

UNLABELLED Neisseria gonorrhoeae is naturally competent for transformation. The first step of the transformation process is the uptake of DNA from the environment into the cell. This transport step is driven by a powerful molecular machine. Here, we addressed the question whether this machine imports single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) and double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) at similar rates. The fluorescence ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE To estimate clinical roles of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) versus angiography and ultrasonography in carotid plaque characterization. METHODS We characterized two groups of patients with recently (<1 month) symptomatic (n=14; age=71.8±8.6 years, mean±SD) or chronic (n=13, age=68.9±9.0 years) carotid stenosis using a battery of imaging ...

We develop two distributed downlink resource allocation algorithms for user-centric, cell-free, spatially-distributed, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) networks. In such networks, each user is served by a subset of nearby transmitters that we call units or DUs. The operation the DUs in region controlled central unit (CU). Our first scheme implemented at DUs, while second CUs controlling th...

Five facets of professional information-seeking behaviour were analysed in a sample of 298 psychology researchers from the Germanspeaking countries. In an online survey data were gathered on (1) information-processing behaviour during research project development, research implementation, results publication, use of citation databases, and preferred publication language, (2) scientists’ functio...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the presence of flow by Doppler ultrasound (DUS) in the wrist and finger joints (carpometacarpal 1 (CMC1), metacarpophalangeal (MCP), and proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joints) of healthy controls. METHODS Twenty seven healthy volunteers (15 women, 12 men; mean age 45 years, range 18-93) with a total of 324 joints were examined by DUS. The synovial vascularisation was de...

BACKGROUND Conventional Valsalva maneuver (CV) is a standardprocedure to exhibit reverse venous flow atsaphenofemoral junction (SFJ) by duplex ultrasonography (DUS). However some patients could not undergo CV during examination. OBJECTIVE Compare blowing party balloon assisted Valsalva (PBAV) with CV for exhibiting the reverse venous flow at SFJ incompetence. MATERIAL AND METHOD Forty patie...

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) hepatitis is extremely common among problematic drug users (DUs). As of 2012, 47 of the 53 European countries had implemented a universal hepatitis B vaccination programme, a scenario that could radically change its spread. Even so, drug users are still one of the main groups at risk of being infected by HBV, exposing the fact that universal vaccination still has not man...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the role of contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS) and Doppler ultrasonography (DUS) in the diagnosis of severe portal hypertension (PH) in patients with liver cirrhosis (LC). METHODS Patients with PH scheduled to receive hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG) measurement were recruited for this study. Hepatic DUS and CEUS were performed successively. Several Doppl...