Abstract As the RAS journals move to Open Access publication, Sue Bowler finds out what change means for research and community

OBJECTIVES We sought to determine the effect of door-to-balloon time on mortality for patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). BACKGROUND Studies have found conflicting results regarding this relationship. METHODS We conducted a cohort study of 29,222 STEMI patients treated with PCI within 6 h of presentati...

BACKGROUND Current guidelines recommend door-to-balloon times of 90 min or less for patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). OBJECTIVES To determine if a clinical pharmacist for the ED (EPh) is associated with decreased door/diagnosis-to-cardiac catheterization laboratory (CCL) time and decreased door-to-balloon time. METH...

BACKGROUND Laminoplasty is a well-recognized technique for decompressing the cervical spine in cases of spondylotic myelopathy and ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament. This technique, originally popularized in Asia, is becoming more widespread, but to date there have been few reports of clinical series from North American centers. METHODS Retrospectively we reviewed (1986-2001...

BACKGROUND Despite American College of Cardiology (ACC) and American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines, many hospitals have door-to-balloon times in excess of 90 minutes. Emergency Department (ED) activation of interventional cardiology has been described as an important strategy to reduce door-to-balloon time. However, prior studies on ED activation have been in suburban hospitals with door-t...

Door passing is the basic capability of an intelligent wheelchair. This paper presents a novel strategy to address the door passing issue by dynamically generating the Bézier curve based trajectory. It consists of door finding, optimization based trajectory generation and tracking control, which are executed repeatedly to increase the ability of passing the door and improve the performance. Whe...

When someone holds a door for us we often respond with a verbal "thanks." But given such a trivial favor, our feelings can vary considerably depending on how the door is held. Studies have shown that verbal thanking increases in relation to door-holding effort. However, it is unclear how such a favor can lead to verbal thanks in addition to reciprocal help. We examined how holding a door in an ...