INTRODUCTION The aim of our study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of deep hypothermic circulatory arrest (DHCA) as a method of cerebral protection during aortic surgery. MATERIALS AND METHODS We carried out a retrospective review of 59 consecutive patients (48 men, 11 women) undergoing elective or emergency aortic surgery requiring DHCA from January 1999 to April 2002 in 2 tertiary ca...

BACKGROUND The timing of the circulatory determination of death for organ donation presents a medical and ethical challenge. Concerns have been raised about the timing of electrocerebral inactivity in relation to the cessation of circulatory function in organ donation after cardio-circulatory death. Nonprocessed electroencephalographic (EEG) measures have not been characterized and may provide ...

The development of durable mechanical circulatory support systems paralleled the expansion of cardiac transplantation. The National Institutes of Health sponsored grants in the 1980s to develop implantable left heart assist systems; 20 years later, they contracted for a national registry, the Interagency Registry for Mechanical Assisted Circulatory Support, to track the clinical evolution of th...

It has been suggested that the increased incidence of ventricular arrhythmias recognized below 30 degrees C might be catecholamine mediated. Elevate catecholamine concentrations have been reported in experimentally induced hypothermia in animals. Plasma concentrations of epinephrine and norepinephrine were measured during profound hypothermia and total circulatory arrest in infants under one ye...

BACKGROUND Immigrants tend to have better health than the Canadian-born. However, the "healthy immigrant" effect diminishes over time and varies by source country. This study examines whether lower hospitalization rates persist from the first (G1) to the second generation (G2) of immigrants, compared with other Canadians (G3+). All-cause and circulatory disease-related hospitalization rates wer...

This epidemiological and exploratory-descriptive study aimed to identify the socioeconomic and demographic features, as well as the health and disease condition of elderly people from a Family Health Program in Porto Alegre, Brazil, with the purpose of contributing to the planning of health actions for this population. Data from 98 elderly people were collected through a home survey by means of...

Vicia genus has 45 species in Iran. Many protective and biological activities have been reported from these species.  In spite of many works, nothing is known about protective effect of V. cracca against hypoxia conditions. In this study, protective effects of V. cracca extract against hypoxia-induced lethality in mice were evaluated by three experimental models of hypoxia, asphyctic, haem...