BACKGROUND Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) is commonly performed to remove bile duct stones. Endoscopic sphincterotomy (EST), endoscopic papillary large balloon dilation (EPLBD), and endoscopic sphincterotomy plus large balloon dilation (ESLBD) are 3 methods used to enlarge the papillary orifice, but their efficacy and safety remains controversial. This study aimed to comp...

Nitric oxide (NO) contributes to hypoxia-induced pial artery dilation, at least in part, through the formation of cGMP and the subsequent release of methionine enkephalin and leucine enkephalin in the newborn pig. In separate studies, these opioids also were observed to elicit NO-dependent pial artery dilation, whereas light/dye endothelial injury reduced hypoxic pial dilation. The current stud...

BACKGROUND One of the strategies for a good outcome and pain free childbearing is to design the delivery room. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of snoezelen room on childbearing outcome such as pain intensity, duration of labor, and perinea status in nulliparous women. PATIENTS AND METHODS This study was a randomized controlled clinical trial consists of 100 chil...

Glycyrrhiza glabra L. (family:Fabaceae:Leguminosae) is one of the important medicinal plant, commonly called as liquorice. Thirty-two Sprague-Dawley male rats were randomly distributed into four groups (n=8). Experimental groups were injected intra-peritoneally with aqueous extract of G. glabra at 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg/day, respectively, for 30 consecutive days while control group was injected ...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to determine the prognostic significance of right ventricular dilation on CT pulmonary angiogram in acute pulmonary embolism and to distinguish if this feature predicts mortality independently of the Pulmonary Embolism Severity Index, an established admission severity score. METHODS A retrospective study of patients admitted with pulmonary embolism confirm...

AIMS Agonists that evoke smooth muscle cell hyperpolarization have the potential to stimulate both local and conducted dilation. We investigated whether the endothelium-dependent vasodilators acetylcholine (ACh) and SLIGRL stimulated conducted dilation and whether this was altered by deficiency in apolipoprotein E (ApoE(-/-)). METHODS AND RESULTS Isolated mesenteric arteries were cannulated, ...

Background. Atherosclerosis has been associated with loss of artery wall distensibility in human cadavers and in experimental animal models, giving it the lay term "hardening of the arteries." Methods and Results. To assess the effect of calcification on arterial distensibility, balloon pressure and volume were recorded during dilation of calcified aortas in Watanabe heritable hyperlipidemic (W...

introduction: the main purpose of this study was to compare transient ischemic dilation (tid) ratios in spect-low dose ct and spect myocardial perfusion imaging (mpi) by application of different quantitative programs and quantify the possible shift in the upper normal limits of tid ratio in the spect-ct mpi. methods: 149 patients with low pre-test probability for coronary artery disease (cad),...