BACKGROUND Traditional antibiotics are increasingly suffering from the emergence of multidrug resistance amongst pathogenic bacteria leading to a range of novel approaches to control microbial infections being investigated as potential alternative treatments. One plausible antimicrobial alternative could be the combination of conventional antimicrobial agents/antibiotics with small molecules wh...

INTRODUCTION We investigated the role of pancreatic stone protein (PSP) in predicting the occurrence of infection in the postoperative course of cardiac surgery patients. Several biomarkers indicating the presence of inflammation and infection are available in the clinical routine; yet, their utility in the postoperative course of patients following cardiac surgery remains uncertain. Moreover, ...

BACKGROUND Diaphragm is the most important part of the respiratory system. Diaphragmatic palsy following cardiac surgery is not uncommon and can cause deterioration of pulmonary functions and attendant pulmonary complications. OBJECTIVES Aim of this study was to observe the incidence of diaphragmatic palsy after off pump coronary artery bypass grafting (OPCAB) as compared to conventional CABG...

BACKGROUND Symptomatic or asymptomatic deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a common complication following coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), in which less than 1% of these patients suffer from clinically evident pulmonary embolism (PE). DVT and PE can increase other morbidities of coronary revascularization from short to long period, but no clear consensus still exists regarding proper thromboprop...

Objective: To analyze comparatively the clinical results of on-pump and off-pump coronary bypass surgery in patients with triple vessel coronary artery disease. Material and Methods: Consecutive 300 isolated multiple coronary artery bypass patients entered into off-pump coronary artery bypass (group OPCAB, n=150) or coronary artery bypass with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) (group CCABG, n=150). ...

OBJECTIVES The goal of this study was to evaluate the safety and performance of the NeoChord DS1000 system (NeoChord, Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota). BACKGROUND There is an increasing interest in transcatheter mitral valve (MV) treatment. The NeoChord DS 1000 system enables off-pump beating heart transapical MV repair with implantation of artificial neo-chordae. METHODS Patients with severe ...

Simultaneous EEG-fMRI combines two powerful neuroimaging techniques, but the EEG signal suffers from severe artifacts in the MRI environment that are difficult to remove. These are the MR scanning artifact and the blood-pulsation artifact--strategies to remove them are a topic of ongoing research. Additionally large, unsystematic artifacts are produced across the full frequency spectrum by the ...

BACKGROUND Proton pump inhibitors are often used in critically ill patients to prevent gastrointestinal bleeding despite limited evidence for benefit. Patients with acute kidney injury requiring renal replacement therapy (RRT) are at high risk of gastrointestinal bleeding as (pre-)uremia induces coagulopathy through effects on platelets and coagulation cascades. No high-quality randomized clini...