INTRODUCTION For continuous hemodialysis, an appropriate vascular access, mostly through an arteriovenous fistula (AVF), is crucial. The Brescia-Cimino (BC) method is a common surgical method for AVF creation. However, this method is sometimes not possible, due to a small venous diameter or its wide distance from the artery. We evaluated the success rate of bifurcated vein patch (BVP) technique...

Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) has been mostly achieved by biventricular pacing (BVP) in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF), although it can also be provided by left ventricular pacing (LVP). The superiority of BVP over LVP remains uncertain. The present meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials was performed to compare the effects of LVP to BVP in patients with CHF. Outcome...

This paper investigates discrete boundary value problems (BVPs) involving secondorder difference equations and two-point boundary conditions. General theorems guaranteeing the existence and uniqueness of solutions to the discrete BVP are established. The methods involve a sufficient growth condition to yield an a priori bound on solutions to a certain family of discrete BVPs. The a priori bound...

BACKGROUND Cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) using biventricular pacing (BVP) has been shown to improve survival in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). However, BVP cannot be achieved in all patients because of technical problems. In such patients, bifocal right ventricular pacing (BFP) may be an alternative. AIM To analyse the relationship between changes in paced QRS complex wi...

BACKGROUND Bifocal pacing (BFP) has been proposed as a more feasible alternative of cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). AIM To evaluate BFP in patients with severe congestive heart failure and significant intraventricular conduction delay and to compare it with biventricular pacing (BVP). METHODS Both echocardiographic examination including tissue Doppler imaging and invasive measureme...

Boundary value problems (BVPs) are systems of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) with boundary conditions imposed at two or more distinct points. Such problems arise within mathematical models in a wide variety of applications. Numerically solving BVPs for ODEs generally requires the use of a series of complex numerical algorithms. Fortunately, when users are required to solve a BVP, they h...

Cyclic adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate (cAMP) has been implicated as an intracellular messenger mediating osmotic regulation of expression of the gene encoding the neuropeptide vasopressin (VP) in the hypothalamus. We have used a heterologous transient transfection system to demonstrate that cAMP regulates the bovine VP gene promoter following transfection into CV1 cells. Mutational analysis iden...

This paper investigates discrete boundary value problems (BVPs) involving secondorder difference equations and two-point boundary conditions. General theorems guaranteeing the existence and uniqueness of solutions to the discrete BVP are established. The methods involve a sufficient growth condition to yield an a priori bound on solutions to a certain family of discrete BVPs. The a priori bound...

Biomedical systems to access physiological signals are, nowadays, in great development. In this context, non-invasive and more user-friendly methods play a role of leading impact in clinical as well as in research activit ies. The blood volume pulse (BVP) sensor is an example of a much more practical and easy to use method to access some cardiac variables than the electrocardiography (ECG) sens...

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study is to compare the effects of bee venom pharmacopuncture (BVP) therapy according to the methods used to treat knee osteoarthritis (OA): intra-acupoint combined with intra-articular injection, intra-acupoint injection, and intra-articular injection. METHODS A total of 69 patients were recruited by the Department of Acupuncture & Moxibustion at Dong- Eui Orie...