Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the common causes of blindness, and hard exudates (HEs) are the primary and early clinical signs of DR. Thus, a reliable detection of HEs is significant for clinical diagnosis and preventing vision loss of patients. In this paper, a novel method is presented to detect HEs automatically in color retinal images. The method consists of two stages: coarse level a...

BACKGROUND Hydroxyethyl starch (HES) is used for fluid replacement in millions of patients around the world every year, yet it has been found to have adverse effects that have a negative impact on patient survival. Recent clinical trials with a modern HES solution (HES 130) and meta-analyses now enable a reassessment of its risks and benefits. METHODS On the basis of a selective literature se...

On Jan 26, 2018, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) suspended the marketing authorisations of hydroxyethyl starch (HES) solutions across the European Union.1 These intravenous solutions are often used for plasma volume replacement following acute blood loss. Evidence from highquality, investigator-initiated clinical trials in kidney donors, patients with sepsis, and in critically ill patients ...

BACKGROUND A meta-analysis concerning perioperative coagulation competence, hemorrhage, and outcome was conducted including the use of hydroxyethyl starches (HESs), dextran, or albumin versus administration of a crystalloid as control to assess the efficacy and safety of colloids and crystalloids for fluid administration during major elective surgery. Surgery was restricted to cardiovascular an...

BACKGROUND This study compared the effects of a potato-based hydroxyethyl starch (HES) with those of a maize-derived HES preparation on coagulation in cardiac surgery patients. METHODS Sixty patients undergoing elective cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass were allocated randomly to receive either a potato-derived HES (6% HES 130/0.42) (n=30) or a waxy-maize-derived HES (6% HES 130/0.4...

Human embryonic stem (hES) cells have the ability to renew themselves and differentiate into multiple cell types upon exposure to appropriate signals. In particular, the ability of hES cells to differentiate into defined neural lineages, such as neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes, is fundamental to developing cell-based therapies for neurodegenerative disorders and studying developmental...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW Hypereosinophilic syndromes (HESs) are disorders characterized by sustained blood or tissue hypereosinophilia or both with subsequent damage to various organs due to eosinophilic infiltration and release of mediators. HES are now recognized to include varied eosinophilic disorders for some of which there are recent insights into their pathogenesis and targeted treatment. REC...

Editor—Delayed graft function (DGF) after transplan-tation of cadaver kidneys is associated with poorer subsequent graft survival. 1 Fluid management during the donor operation can significantly modify the risk of DGF. Thus, in a blinded randomized trial of 69 kidney transplants from brain-dead donors, 2 volume loading with a mean of 2100 ml hydroxyethyl starch (HES) increased the incidence of ...

Therapy principles of the last decade and recent advances in the research of polynuclear eosinophil have led to a new approach in the hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES), with important consequences on the development of new and effective therapies. HES is defined by persistent and marked eosinophilia and eosinophil-related organ damage in the absence of any evident cause of hypereosinophilia. Two...

Since 1998, when the first human embryonic stem (hES) cell lines were reported (Thomson et al., 1998), a large number of hES cell lines have been derived from the inner cell mass of preimplantation embryos donated at in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics (Guhr et al., 2006). These hES cell lines possess remarkable ability of both unlimited self-renewal and pluripotency to generate any cell type ...