BACKGROUND The differential diagnosis between idiopathic and cardiomyopathy-related right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) ventricular arrhythmias (VAs) is crucial. Signal-averaged ECG (SAECG) abnormalities are frequent in cardiomyopathy-related RVOT-VAs, although their pathophysiologic basis and diagnostic value in this setting are undefined. We tested the association between SAECG and the myo...

In recent years much attention has been paid to parallelism and concurrent systems. Petri nets are a formalism which is commonly used for these studies [8]. The theory of Petri nets can be described in the mathematical frame of vector addition systems (VAS). Although these two approaches are equivalent, we formulate our results here in the VAS formalism. Karp and Miller provided in [5] a tool w...

We report true duplication of the vas deferens found at routine inguinal hernia repair. This rarity is described in the context of the embryologic model for other vas abnormalities.

Duplication of the vas deferens is a rare anomaly, defined as the presence of two distinct vasa deferentia within one spermatic cord, with only 28 cases reported worldwide since 1959. We report the case of a 63-year-old man with a duplicate vas deferens, presenting with abdominal pain from bowel obstruction secondary to incarcerated inguinal hernia. Spermatic cord dissection during hernioplasty...

CONTEXT Drink tests constitute an inexpensive and non-invasive tool, which has been proposed to discriminate individuals with altered fluid intake, as dyspeptics. However, their use in everyday clinical practice is still limited as standardization still lacks. OBJECTIVE To perform a direct, paired comparison between the water and the nutrient drink test in normal volunteers. METHODS Thirty ...

BACKGROUND Congenital lower urinary tract obstruction (LUTO) is a disease associated with high perinatal mortality and childhood morbidity. Fetal vesicoamniotic shunting (VAS) bypasses the obstruction with the potential to improve outcome. OBJECTIVE To determine the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and patient acceptability of VAS for fetal LUTO. DESIGN A multicentre, randomised controlled...

OBJECTIVE To compare the abbreviated Cutaneous Assessment Tool (CAT), Disease Activity Score (DAS), and Myositis Intention to Treat Activity Index (MITAX) and correlate them with the physician's 10-cm skin visual analog scale (VAS) in order to define which tool best assesses skin disease in patients with juvenile dermatomyositis. METHODS A total of 71 patients recruited to the UK Juvenile Der...