Metabolic and mechanical stress in the failing heart activates the cardiac sympathetic afferent reflex (CSAR). It has been demonstrated that cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) acutely reduces MSNA in clinical responders. Mechanistically, this beneficial effect might be explained by acute deactivation of the CSAR. In addition to sympathoexcitation, CSAR inhibits the arterial baroreflex at t...

UNLABELLED Calreticulin (CRT) is a Ca(2+)-binding chaperone protein that alters cellular Ca(2+)-homeostasis in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Previously it was shown that CRT was overexpressed in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), and elevated CRT expression promoted the migration and invasion of ESCC cells. In the present study, the mechanisms underlying the role of CRT in esophageal ...

BACKGROUND Heart failure (HF) is a debilitating condition that affects millions of people worldwide. One means of treating HF is cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). Recently, several studies have examined the use of echocardiography (ECHO) in the optimization of left ventricular (LV) lead placement to increase the response to CRT. The objective of this study was to synthesize the available...

We report a study examining the role of 'cognitive miserliness' as a determinant of poor performance on the standard three-item Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT). The cognitive miserliness hypothesis proposes that people often respond incorrectly on CRT items because of an unwillingness to go beyond default, heuristic processing and invest time and effort in analytic, reflective processing. Our a...

BACKGROUND To know the effectiveness and tolerance of weekly cisplatin added to radiotherapy (RT) in advanced carcinoma of oropharynx and nasopharynx. PATIENTS AND METHODS Stage II-IV cancer patients were randomly assigned to either radical RT, 70 Gy/35 fractions over 7 weeks (RT arm), or chemoradiotherapy (CRT), cisplatin 40 mg/m² weekly for seven doses plus RT. Primary end points were (i) t...

Purpose: To compare the clinical outcomes of induction chemotherapy (IC) followed by chemoradiotherapy (CRT) versus chemoradiotherapy alone in patients with locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Patients and methods: Between 2002 and 2015, 267 ESCC patients who received definitive CRT with docetaxel and cisplatin were enrolled in this study. Through a matched case-control ...

The anticancer drug doxorubicin induces the synthesis of nitric oxide, a small molecule that enhances the drug cytotoxicity and reduces the drug efflux through the membrane pump P-glycoprotein (Pgp). Doxorubicin also induces the translocation on the plasma membrane of the protein calreticulin (CRT), which allows tumour cells to be phagocytized by dendritic cells. We have shown that doxorubicin ...

AIMS Chronic right ventricular (RV) pacing may impose ventricular dyssynchrony leading to LV remodelling and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Upgrading patients with chronic RV pacing to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) may be considered to restore synchronicity and prevent these deleterious effects. METHODS AND RESULTS A total of 172 patients from two tertiary cen...

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) with respect to heart failure etiology among patients in the REVERSE (REsynchronization reVErses Remodeling in Systolic Left vEntricular Dysfunction) study. BACKGROUND CRT improves outcomes in New York Heart Association functional class III/IV heart failure with wide QRS with a more pr...

The Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) was devised to measure the inhibition of heuristic responses to favour analytic ones. Toplak, West and Stanovich (2011) demonstrated that the CRT was a powerful predictor of heuristics and biases task performance proposing it as a metric of the cognitive miserliness central to dual process theories of thinking. This thesis was examined using reasoning respons...