84 research outputs found

    Microparticles Carrying Sonic Hedgehog Are Increased in Humans with Peripheral Artery Disease.

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    Sonic hedgehog (Shh) is a prototypical angiogenic agent with a crucial role in the regulation of angiogenesis. Experimental studies have shown that Shh is upregulated in response to ischemia. Also, Shh may be found on the surface of circulating microparticles (MPs) and MPs bearing Shh (Shh + MPs) have shown the ability to contribute to reparative neovascularization after ischemic injury in mice. The goal of this study was to test the hypothesis that, in humans with peripheral artery disease (PAD), there is increased number of circulating Shh + MPs. This was done by assessing the number of Shh + MPs in plasma of patients with PAD and control subjects without PAD. We found significantly higher number of Shh + MPs in plasma of subjects with PAD, compared to controls, while the global number of MPs\u2014produced either by endothelial cells, platelets, leukocytes, and erythrocytes\u2014was not different between PAD patients and controls. We also found a significant association between the number of Shh + MPs and the number of collateral vessels in the ischemic limbs of PAD patients. Interestingly, the concentration of Shh protein unbound to MPs\u2014which was measured in MP-depleted plasma\u2014was not different between subjects with PAD and the controls, indicating that, in the setting of PAD, the call for Shh recapitulation does not lead to secretion of protein into the blood but to binding of the protein to the membrane of MPs. These findings provide novel information on Shh signaling during ischemia in humans, with potentially important biological and clinical implications

    Consensus document on intermittent claudication from the Central European Vascular Forum 1st edition - Abano Terme (Italy) - May 2005 2nd revision - Portroz (Slovenia) September 2007.

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    The paper contains the document on intermittent claudication: diagnosis, mangement and rehabilitation in the different stages of peripheral artery disease. The consensus is international and involves some nations from central Europe. This Document presents suggestions for General Practitioners for more precise and appropriate management of PAD, particularly of Intermittent Claudication, and underlines the investigations that should be required by GP and what the GP should expect from the vascular specialist (angiologist, vascular surgeon)

    Diagnosis of electrocution: The application of scanning electron microscope and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy in five cases

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    Deaths from electricity, generally, do not have specific findings at the autopsy. The diagnosis is commonly based on the circumstances of the death and the morphologic findings, above all the current mark. Yet, the skin injury due to an electrocution and other kinds of thermal injuries often cannot be differentiated with certainty. Therefore, there is a great interest in finding specific markers of electrocution. The search for the metallization of the skin through Scanning Electron Microscope equipped with Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDS) probe is of special importance in order to achieve a definite diagnosis in case of suspected electrocution

    Zircon megacrysts from basalts of the Venetian Volcanic Province (NE Italy) : U-Pb ages, oxygen isotopes and REE data

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    Mafic alkaline lavas from the Venetian Volcanic Province (NE Italy) contain orange\u2013brown zircon megacrysts up to 15 mm long, subhedral to subrounded and showing equant morphology, with width-to-length ratios of 1:2\u20131:2.5. U\u2013Pb ages of zircon (51.1\ub11.5 to 30.5\ub10.51 Ma) fit the stratigraphic age of the host lava (Middle Eocene and Oligocene) and their oxygen isotope composition (\u3b418O=5.31\u20135.51\u2030) is similar to that of zircon formed in the upper mantle. Cathodoluminescence images and crystal chemical features, e.g. depletion of incompatible elements such as REE, Y, U and Th at constant Hf content, indicate that centre-to- edge zircon zoning is not consistent with evolution of the melt by fractional crystallization. All the above features, together with the fact that zircon and host basalts are coeval, indicate that the studied Zr megacrysts crystallised from a primitive alkaline mafic magma, which later evolved to the less alkaline host magma

    Renal effects of iloprost in patients with peripheral arterial disease.

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    none6noneAngeli P.; Caregaro L.; Menon F.; Bazzerla G.; Visonà A.; Lusiani L.;Angeli, Paolo; CAREGARO NEGRIN, Lorenza; Menon, F.; Bazzerla, G.; Visonà, A.; Lusiani, L

    Paediatric palliative care planning: a simulation based decision support

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    Paediatric palliative patients are children suffering fro incurable pathologies which cause them a lot of human, clinical, psychological, ethical and spiritual problems and require special assistance. Only in recent times they have been considered as specific patients needing qualified cares. The best organization of special cares, able to relief pain and to permit a bearable life, is based on integrated home assistance, including specific cares for the interested pathology, generic cares and psychological and social support, supplied by both a specialized hospital team and a territorial equip. Integrated home assistance may be interrupted by short admissions in a hospice, a dedicated facility apt to supply special cares and to assist also the family, and by short admissions in an acute hospital department, when necessary. Only if the above assistance methods cannot be adopted, simple home care, under control of a territorial equip, is effected. Here we built up a simulation model describing pediatric palliative patients movements among the interested health facilities, by considering interactions and competitions with ordinary patients for admissions in hospital departments. The model has been implemented in a personal computer by means of a specific simulation language, easily understandable also by non expert users. The model evidences how patients are assisted and how facilities are used; moreover it lets us remark improper hospital admissions due to fully occupied specifically facilities. Therefore it may be used as a decision support in the planning of a new assistance network or in the adjusting of an existing one. The model has been first applied to Veneto region in North-East Italy but can be easily adapted to describe other similar situations
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