Fatsia polycarpa, a plant endemic to Taiwan, is an herbal medicine known for treating several inflammation-related diseases, but its biological function needs scientific support. Thus, the anti-inflammatory effects and mechanisms of the methanolic crude extract (MCE) of F. polycarpa and its feature constituents, that is, brassicasterol (a phytosterol), triterpenoids 3 α -hydroxyolean-11,13(18)-...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this research was to evaluate the potential for myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) to provoke microscale bioeffects in a canine model. BACKGROUND Myocardial contrast echocardiography induces bioeffects in rat hearts, but translation of such results to larger animal models is uncertain. METHODS Dogs were anesthetized and prepared for open- (n = 22) or closed- (n...

BACKGROUND Myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) allows visualization of radiofrequency (RF) ablation lesions in the left ventricle in an animal model. AIM To test whether MCE allows visualization of RF and cryo ablation lesions in the human right atrium using three-dimensional echocardiography. METHODS 18 patients underwent catheter ablation of a supraventricular tachycardia and were ...

Methylmalonyl-CoA epimerase (MCE) is an enzyme involved in the propionyl-CoA metabolism that is responsible for the degradation of branched amino acids and odd-chain fatty acids. This pathway typically functions in the reversible conversion of propionyl-CoA to succinyl-CoA. The Caenorhabditis elegans genome contains a single gene encoding MCE (mce-1) corresponding to a 15 kDa protein. This was ...

OBJECTIVE Early brain insults can cause cavitary lesions including porencephaly (POR) and multicystic encephalopathy (MCE). The objective of this study was to investigate clinical and electrographic correlates associated to these types of destructive brain lesions. METHOD Patients with POR and MCE were selected and submitted to clinical and Video-EEG monitoring. The following variables were a...

BACKGROUND The incremental prognostic value of myocardial perfusion-gated single photon emission computed tomography (MPGS) compared with exercise test has not yet been properly evaluated. METHODS AND RESULTS Five thousand six hundred seventy-two consecutive patients with known or suspected coronary disease undergoing exercise MPGS between 1997 and 2007 were included. Three-year predictive mo...

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES Myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) is useful for predicting the functional recovery of akinetic segments in patients undergoing primary angioplasty after acute myocardial infraction (AMI). Recently, parametric imaging-based quantitative MCE has been developed for measuring perfusion. Our aims were: a) to measure perfusion in akinetic myocardial segments in pa...

BACKGROUND Both intermittent triggered and real-time myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) have been proposed to detect impaired myocardial perfusion. We compared the ability of these 2 methods to quantify altered myocardial blood flow (MBF) and transmural distribution of MBF produced by graded coronary stenoses. METHODS AND RESULTS In 8 open-chest dogs, we created 4 graded left anterior...

A coronary artery-left ventricular fistula (CAF) is an extremely rare anatomical abnormality in which blood drains directly from a coronary artery into the left ventricle. CAF may cause myocardial ischaemia and angina. Myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) is a non-invasive technique which assesses myocardial perfusion. We describe a patient with CAF in whom transmural myocardial ischaemia...

When induced to differentiate, growth-arrested 3T3-L1 preadipocytes synchronously reenter the cell cycle and undergo mitotic clonal expansion (MCE) followed by expression of genes that produce the adipocyte phenotype. The preadipocytes traverse the G(1)S checkpoint synchronously as evidenced by the expressionactivation of cdk2-cyclin-EA, turnover of p27kip1, hyperphosphorylation of Rb, transloc...