Ensuring analgesia both intraoperatively and postoperatively by the administration of local anesthetics or opioid through epidural catheter is a widespread method. On the other hand, after thoracic and major abdominal surgery, optimal perioperative anesthesia and analgesia can be provided through thoracic epidural analgesia and thus, postoperative morbidity and mortality can be decreased specif...

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that epidural blockade with local anesthetic improves the anticatabolic effects of glucose after colorectal surgery. Sixteen patients were randomly assigned to undergo a 6-h stable isotope infusion study (3 h fasted, 3 h glucose infusion at 4 mg. kg(-1). min(-1)) on the second postoperative day with or without perioperative epidural blockade....

OBJECTIVE To investigate the regulation mechanism of T cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain-3 (Tim-3) combined with toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) or TLR4 on antiviral immune and inflammatory response in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. METHODS Patients with chronic HCV infection and healthy control subjects were recruited. Patients received interferon (IFN)-α based thera...

INTRODUCTION In this study, we evaluated the activity of the neuroendocrine axes in patients with polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) before and after tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α-blocking etanercept treatment, which previously has been shown to reduce interleukin 6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP) markedly in PMR. METHODS Plasma samples were collected from 10 glucocorticoid-naïve patients with ...

Background: The renin-angiotensin system has an important role in hepatic inflammation and fibrosis. Renin-angiotensin system blockade by angiotensinconverting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors provides some protective effects against hepatic fibrogenesis. Captopril as an ACE inhibitor can decrease inflammatory mediators and attenuate hepatic fibrosis in the livers of bile duct ligated (BDL) rats. Object...

BACKGROUND Traumatic placement of a needle during a neuraxial blockade has been related to many complications such as postdural puncture headache, trauma to neural structures and even spinal hematoma, causing permanent neurologic deficits. Although efforts to minimize the complications caused by traumatic neuraxial blockade have been made, nothing was found to be clear. The authors investigated...

Interleukin (IL)-32 is a recently described proinflammatory cytokine, characterized by induction of nuclear factor (NF)-κB activation. We studied IL-32α expression in human colonic subepithelial myofibroblasts (SEMFs). Colonic SEMFs were isolated from normal human colon tissue. IL-32α protein expression was evaluated by Western blot analyses, and IL-32α mRNA expression was analyzed by real-time...

Thoracotomies are among the most painful of surgical incisions. Postoperatively, the movement of the chest with each breath increases the pain, and patients often “splint” to the point of hypercapnea or hypoxia. Substantial analgesia is required to avoid postoperative respiratory complications, but heavy opioid use blunts the respiratory drive and may itself be associated with postoperative com...

BACKGROUND The initial treatment of an acute blood loss with acellular fluids leads to the dilution of the red cell mass remaining in the vasculature, that is, to acute normovolemic anemia. Whether the compensation and, thus, the tolerance of acute anemia, are affected by sympathetic block induced by thoracic epidural anesthesia has not yet been investigated. METHODS Eighteen anesthetized and...

The approach of reaggregation involves the regeneration and self-renewal of histotypical 3D spheres from isolated tissue kept in suspension culture. Reaggregated spheres can be used as tumour, genetic, biohybrid and neurosphere models. In addition the functional superiority of 3D aggregates over conventional 2D cultures developed the use of neurospheres for brain engineering of CNS diseases. Th...