The distance from the midline to the left heart border measured in a standardized manner on calibrated chest roentgenograms was determined serially in 125 patients after acute myocardial infarction. This external left heart dimension (LHD) was compared to the normal value, and its prognostic value was assessed during early and late follow-up periods (average 10, range 2-31 months). Within 96 ho...

Metal-containing fuel additives catalyzing soot combustion in diesel particle filters are used in a widespread manner, and with the growing popularity of diesel vehicles, their application is expected to increase in the near future. Detailed investigation into how such additives affect exhaust toxicity is therefore necessary and has to be performed before epidemiological evidence points towards...

It is widely known that the railroad diesel locomotive engines emit significant amount of air pollutants. However, these engines are not equipped with any air pollutants reducing devices in Korea, resulting in the accumulative air pollution near the railroad. Because the pollutants emission from driving locomotive engines cannot be measured directly, the emission factors based on the amount of ...

There is growing interest in biodiesel (fatty acid methyl ester or FAME) because of the similarity in its properties when compared to those of diesel fuels. Diesel engines operated on biodiesel have lower emissions of carbon monoxide, unburned hydrocarbons, particulate matter, and air toxics than when operated on petroleum-based diesel fuel. Production of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) from rap...

Limited data are available on the emission rates of speciated volatile and semivolatile organic compounds, as well as the physical and chemical characteristics of fine particulate matter (PM) from mobile, in-use diesel engines operated on the road. A design for the sampling of these fractions and the first data from in-use diesel sources are presented in this paper. Emission rates for carbonyls...

OBJECTIVE The legal environment may improve response willingness among local health department (LHD) workers. We examined whether 3 hypothetical legal protections influence LHD workers' self-reported response willingness for 4 emergency scenarios and whether specific demographic factors are associated with LHD workers' response willingness given these legal protections. METHODS Our 2011-2012 ...

Van N. Selby, MD University of California, San Francisco Division of Cardiology San Francisco, CA Background: Left heart disease (LHD) is the most common cause of pulmonary hypertension (PH) and is associated with poor patient outcomes, especially among patients undergoing heart transplant evaluation. Implications for clinicians: Left heart disease should be considered in all patients undergoin...

Objectives: Although pulmonary hypertension (PH) caused by left heart disease (PH-LHD) is more common in PH, little is known about its properties of pulmonary artery (PA) in PH-LHD. The purpose of this study was to measure pulmonary regional pulse wave velocity (PWV) and to quantify the magnitude of reflected waves in patients with PH-LHD by the analysis of the pressure-velocity loops (PU-loop)...

CONTEXT As the science and practice of syndromic surveillance (SyS) evolve, it has increasing utility for public health surveillance at the local level. Local health departments (LHDs) require specific organizational and workforce capabilities to use SyS data. In 2013, more than half of the LHDs reported using SyS, although little has been reported about LHD workforce capabilities in SyS. OBJ...

Hemoglobin (Hb) within the reference interval does not exclude iron deficiency, because there is a long period of reduced iron stores (latent iron deficiency) before anemia is present. Low Hb density (LHD %) reported by Beckman-Coulter analyzers, derived from the mean cell hemoglobin concentration, is related to iron availability and hemoglobin content. We study the potential utility of LHD% in...