BACKGROUND Mechanical heart valve replacement requires lifelong anticoagulant treatment. Aspirin has proved useful in further reducing thromboembolic events when added to oral anticoagulants. However, increased (gastrointestinal) bleeding was observed at the doses previously tested for this combination in heart valve prostheses. METHODS We performed a prospective randomized trial to compare t...

A 69-year-old woman with a history of valve replacement for her aortic stenosis presented with the chief complaint of left arm pain, fever, chills, and fatigue. No recent dental procedures had been performed. However, she had undergone a colonoscopy for gastrointestinal bleeding 2 months prior to this visit. Her physical examination was notable for pyrexia, a left forearm ecchymosis, and a puls...

We develop and empirically implement a model of optimal replacement of rental equipment and apply the model to derive detailed optimal replacement strategies for five different types of rental machinery: 1) excavators, 2) high reach forklifts, 3) skid steers, 4) scissor lifts, and 5) telescopic booms. Using data on actual replacements, revenues, maintenance costs, new machine prices and resale ...

Chronic inflammation is a hallmark of HIV infection. Eicosanoids reflect inflammation, oxidant stress, and vascular health and vary by sex and metabolic parameters. Raltegravir (RAL) is an HIV-1 integrase inhibitor that may have limited metabolic effects. We assessed urinary F2-isoprostanes (F2-IsoPs), prostaglandin E2 (PGE-M), prostacyclin (PGI-M), and thromboxane B2 (TxB2) in HIV-infected wom...

Age-replacement is one of the most commonly usedmaintenance policies based on preventive action to prevent system failure. Inmany age-replacement settings, it assumed that maintenance time can beignored since short compared with operation time. However, maintenance,especially corrective maintenance, may take a non-negligible amount dueto various factors such as ordering replacement parts, equip...

OBJECTIVE To investigate to what extent age-related maculopathy (ARM) is genetically determined. DESIGN AND SETTING Familial aggregation study based on probands derived from the population-based Rotterdam Study. PARTICIPANTS First-degree relatives of 87 patients with late ARM, i.e., atrophic or neovascular macular degeneration, were compared with first-degree relatives of 135 control subjec...

Background: Infantile obesity is becoming increasingly recognized as one of the public health problems in Iran. Objective: Obesity charts of a cohort of 317 healthy infants and their parents living in Shiraz (Southern Iran) are presented and the familial pattern of infants’ obesity with that of its parents explored. Methods: An adjusted weight-for-height index was used to develop power type obe...

BACKGROUND Upper-arm muscle area (UMA), upper-arm fat area (UFA), arm-fat index (AFI), upper-arm fat estimate (UFE) and upper-arm muscle estimate (UME) was introduced for the assessment of body-composition. This cross-sectional study assessed age-sex specific upper-arm composition and nutritional status among children and adolescents. METHODS The present cross-sectional study was conducted am...

background : infantile obesity is becoming increasingly recognized as one of the public health problems in iran.   objective: obesity charts of a cohort of 317 healthy infants and their parents living in shiraz (southern iran) are presented and the familial pattern of infants’ obesity with that of its parents explored.   methods : an adjusted weight-for-height index was used to develop power ty...