A new technique ("microlavage") was used to determine the volume of epithelial lining fluid recovered by bronchoalveolar lavage. A standard bronchial brush tube is used to lavage a peripheral lung subsegment rapidly with 20 ml of normal saline and the concentrations of urea and total protein are measured in the aspirated fluid. Using a very short dwell time for fluid (less than 20 seconds), thi...

Excavation of shallow tunnels such as subways in urban areas plays a significant role as a life line and investigation of the soil behavior against tunnel construction is one of the vital subjects studied in the geotechnical scope. Nowadays, urban tunnels are mostly drilled by T.B.Ms and changing the applied forces to tunnel lining is one of the most risky matters while drilling tunnels by thes...

Background: Chronic low back pain (CLBP) disability has been particularly frustrating because its treatment has been a great therapeutic challenge. Disability has been suggested to depend on different factors that should be found and considered in the medical management. The inter-segmental coordination is often impaired in CLBP subjects; however, to the best of our knowledge, there is no evide...

Segmental neurofibromatosis is a rare clinical finding generally with no family history and facial involvement. There are four subtypes of segmental neurofibromatosis: true segmental, localized cases with deep involvement, hereditary segmental and bilateral segmental neurofibromatosis. Here we report three patients from the same family (father, son and granddaughter) with segmental bilateral ne...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Injury to spinal segmental arteries may potentially occur during spinal surgery, particularly during anterior or minimally invasive approaches. Use of a noninvasive radiologic tool to evaluate these arteries before surgery may reduce this risk. MATERIAL AND METHODS We performed spinal CT angiography and reconstructed 3D images of segmental arteries in 41 patients. We cl...

Finite element technique is used to model two phases of tunneling process, namely; excavation and rocklining interaction. The excavation phase is responsible for determining the pre-lining rock mass deformations and the reduced in-situ stresses. The interaction phase models the compatibility of the rock-lining system. The deformations and stresses of the rock-lining system and the final rock ma...