Environmental Asbestotic Pleural Plaques in Northeast Corsica: Correlations with Airborne and Pleural Mineralogic Analysis

We report a prevalence study of environmental pleural plaques in subjects over 50 years old from the northeastern Corsican village of Murato, built on asbestos surface deposits. The percentage of plaques was 41%, versus 7.5% in the control village of Vezzani. Although surface deposits contain both chrysotile and tremolite, airborne pollution and asbestos lung burden of exposed inhabitants consist essentially of tremolite as assessed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). However, TEM analysis of the parietal pleura of three animals bred in exposed areas showed a predominance of short fibers of chrysotile. The respective roles of tremolite and chrysotile in inducing pleural plaques in Corsica should thus be considered.—Environ Health Perspect 102(Suppl 5):251–252 (1994

The efficacy of indwelling pleural catheter placement versus placement plus talc sclerosant in patients with malignant pleural effusions managed exclusively as outpatients (IPC-PLUS): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Malignant pleural effusions (MPEs) remain a common problem, with 40,000 new cases in the United Kingdom each year and up to 250,000 in the United States. Traditional management of MPE usually involves an inpatient stay with placement of a chest drain, followed by the instillation of a pleural sclerosing agent such as talc, which aims to minimise further fluid build-up. Despite a good success rate in studies, this approach can be expensive, time-consuming and inconvenient for patients. More recently, an alternative method has become available in the form of indwelling pleural catheters (IPCs), which can be inserted and managed in an outpatient setting. It is currently unknown whether combining talc pleurodesis with IPCs will provide improved pleural symphysis rates over those of IPCs alone. METHODS/DESIGN: IPC-PLUS is a patient-blind, multicentre randomised controlled trial (RCT) comparing the combination of talc with an IPC to the use of an IPC alone for inducing pleurodesis in MPEs. The primary outcome is successful pleurodesis at five weeks post-randomisation. This study will recruit 154 patients, with an interim analysis for efficacy after 100 patients, and aims to help to define the future gold standard for outpatient management of patients with symptomatic MPEs. DISCUSSION: IPC-PLUS is the first RCT to examine the practicality and utility of talc administered via an IPC. The study remains in active recruitment and has the potential to significantly alter how patients requiring pleurodesis for MPE are approached in the future. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This trial was registered with Current Controlled Trials (identifier: ISRCTN73255764) on 23 August 2012

Red blood cell: from its mechanics to its motion in shear flow

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Porous structure of membranes of an acrylonitrile copolymer. Porosity, 1^1H-NMR permeability

Nanoporous polymer membranes (porosity $\phi\approx 0.7$) used for dialysis are studied from NMR relaxation times of water confined in the pore space. Fast interpore water diffusion is observed. Two structural parameters are evidenced: i) a reduced NMR relaxation time, $\tau$, which reflects the width of the pore-size distribution; ii) the average polymer-grain size of the solid matrix deduced from NMR experiments performed on membranes partially filled by water. A relation is found between the ratio $k/\tau^2$, where $k$ is the permeability to water and the porosity. This relation is in qualitative agreement with numerical simulations reported in the literature on low-porosity systems and with experimental results obtained for sedimentary rocks and for fused glass model systems. It supports the idea that $\tau$ is the relevant structural parameter to describe convective transport in a wide class of porous systems

Giant Lipid Vesicles Filled with a Gel: Shape Instability Induced by Osmotic Shrinkage

We report the properties of giant lipid vesicles enclosing an agarose gel. In this system, the lipid bilayer retains some basic properties of biological membranes and the internal fluid exhibits viscoelastic properties, thus permitting us to address the question of the deformation of a cell membrane in relation to the mechanical properties of its cytoskeleton. The agarose gel (concentration c(0gel) = 0.07%, 0.18%, 0.36%, and 1% w/w), likely not anchored to the membrane, confers to the internal volume elastic moduli in the range of 10–10(4) Pa. Shapes and kinetics of de-swelling of gel-filled and aqueous solution-filled vesicles are compared upon either a progressive or a fast osmotic shrinkage. Both systems exhibit similar kinetics. Shapes of solution-filled vesicles are well described using the area difference elasticity model, whereas gel-filled vesicles present original patterns: facets, bumps, spikes (c(0gel) < 0.36%), or wrinkles (c(0gel) ≥ 0.36%). These shapes partially vanish upon re-swelling, and some of them are reminiscent of echinocytic shapes of erythrocytes. Their characteristic size (microns) decreases upon increasing c(0gel). A possible origin of these patterns, relying on the formation of a dense impermeable gel layer at the vesicle surface and associated with a transition toward a collapsed gel phase, is advanced

Full dynamics of a red blood cell in shear flow

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