We have created a computational model of the timing network that paces the heartbeat of the medicinal leech, Hirudo medicinalis. The rhythmic activity of this network originates from two segmental oscillators located in the third and fourth midbody ganglia. In the intact nerve cord, these segmental oscillators are mutually entrained to the same cycle period. Although experiments have shown that...

background: low back pain (lbp) is one of the most common musculoskeletal complications of today’s societies which, poses a big portion of health expenses and work absentees. lumbar disc herniation is claimed to be one of the several causes of lbp. conservative therapies like physiotherapy are found to be beneficial for treatment in such a kind of lbp. however, there is low evidence proving tra...

BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS Inadequate bowel preparation negatively influences the reliability of examinations by video capsule endoscopy (VCE). Currently, only subjective scales are available to describe mucosal visibility. We aimed to design a score that was derived directly from the VCE images. PATIENTS AND METHODS A computed assessment of cleansing score was developed based on color intensi...

AIMS Pulse pressure/stroke volume (PP/SV) is regarded as a surrogate index of arterial stiffness (AS). Strain echocardiography is a novel method to evaluate systolic and diastolic left ventricular (LV) function. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of AS on segmental relaxation and systolic deformation in hypertensive disease. METHODS AND RESULTS We evaluated 70 hypertensive pa...

Glomerular and tubulo-interstitial lesions are involved in the determination of the degree of renal function impairment and in the outcome of the disease in patients with primary or secondary glomerulonephritis. In order to assess the histological changes we used a scoring system, similar to the one used in lupus nephritis and ANCA associated vasculitis. The scores obtained from the retrospecti...

BACKGROUND Segmental nodes are not examined routinely in current clinical practice for lung cancer, the role of segmental nodes in pathological staging of non-small cell lung cancer after radical resection was investigated. METHODS A total of 113 consecutive non-small cell lung cancer patients who underwent radical resection between June 2009 and December 2011 were retrospectively reviewed. A...

BACKGROUND Large segmental bone defects caused by trauma, infection, or bone tumor resection are difficult to cure and have been a problem in the field of bone repair for decades. The objective of this study was to discuss the efficacy of combined therapy of free periosteum and bone allograft in treating bone defects and to provide a theoretical basis for clinical application of this therapy. ...

Objective: Prospective, randomized comparison of short-term and one-year postoperative outcomes after radiofrequency endoluminal ablation (REA) of the great saphenous vein (GSV), saphenofemoral junction (SFJ) ligation with extended tributary ligation and invagination GSV stripping, and SFJ ligation with extended tributary ligation and GSV cryostripping. Methods: In all, 60 consenting patients w...