INTRODUCTION Acute aortic dissection (AAD), acute pulmonary embolism (PE) and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) are all emergent diseases with acute chest pain. However, it is sometimes difficult to diagnose these diseases by symptoms, ECG changes and/or cardiac biomarkers, especially immediately after onset. Because these diseases are all thrombogenic diseases, we considered that D-dimer could...

OBJECTIVE We aimed to establish an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for measuring soluble elastin fragments (sELAF) in serum and to reveal its usefulness in diagnosing acute aortic dissection (AAD). METHODS AND RESULTS An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to measure sELAF in serum was developed by using the newly created double monoclonal antibodies, which recognize the different epitopes of...

INTRODUCTION Excessive alcohol consumption is a leading cause of premature mortality in the United States. The objectives of this study were to update national estimates of alcohol-attributable deaths (AAD) and years of potential life lost (YPLL) in the United States, calculate age-adjusted rates of AAD and YPLL in states, assess the contribution of AAD and YPLL to total deaths and YPLL among w...

Although cardiovascular complications are the most common cause of death in patients with autosomal-dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), the incidence and risk of aortic aneurysm and dissection (AAD) in ADPKD remains unclear due to limited data and insufficient cases. We utilized the data from Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) to do a population-based cohort stud...

BACKGROUND There is some controversy as to whether tirofiban or eptifibatide, two small anti-aggregating drugs (AAD), may reduce the incidence of composite ischemic events within one year in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in the real clinical world. METHODS We compared consecutive patients on oral double AAD (with clopidogrel and aspirin) who underwent PCI (n=207...

An educational program, consisting in a clear explanation of the technical aspects and use of the adrenaline auto-injection devices (AAD) and in a practical test utilizing a demonstration kit was given to 350 patients from our outpatient clinic. AAD was also distributed to 50 patients formerly followed by another allergy clinic without training. At practical control test, only 10% of the untrai...

INTRODUCTION Antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD) is common and frequently more severe in hospitalized elderly adults. It can lead to increased use of healthcare resources. We estimated the cost-effectiveness of a fermented milk (FM) with probiotic in preventing AAD and in particular Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea (CDAD). METHODS Clinical effectiveness data and cost information wer...

It has been suggested that complexes between gene-specific activators and the TATA-binding protein (TBP) play an important role in the expression of many genes. However, few detailed studies of well defined activator-TBP complexes have been reported. An analysis of the biochemical properties of the complex formed by the acidic activation domain (AAD) of the yeast activator Gal4 and TBP is prese...

An imbalance between degradation and reconstruction of the aortic wall is one of the leading causes of acute aortic dissection (AAD). Vitamin D seems an intriguing molecule to explore in the field of AAD since it improves endothelial function and protects smooth muscle cells from inflammation-induced remodeling, calcification, and loss of function, all events which are strongly related to the a...

Acute aortic dissection (AAD) is a serious vascular disease. Currently the diagnosis relies on clinical and radiological means whereas serum biomarkers are lacking. The purpose of this study was to identify potential serum biomarkers for AAD using isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) approach. A total of 120 serum samples were collected from three groups: AAD patients (n...