MORPHOLOGICAL AND QUANTITATIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NORMAL APEXCARDIOGRAM IN CHILDHOOD

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INVESTIGATING THE PROTEIN CONSTITUENTS OF SERUM GLYCOPROTEINS IN THYMECTOMIZED RATS WITH EXPERIMENTAL MYOCARDITIS

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COMPARATIVE INVESTIGATION OF THE PRECIPITATING INFLUENCE OF HISTONES UPON PLASMA OF RATS WITH TUMOURS AND HEALTHY ONES

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AMLODIPIN-INDUCED GINGIVAL OVERGROWTH AND APPLICATION OF ER:YAG LASER IN THE TREATMENT PROTOCOL.

Gingival overgrowth (GO) is one of the most important clinical features of gingival pathology. Amlodipine is a comparatively new III generation calcium channels blocker, used for management of cardiovascular disorders. Although it is considered safe, it can also rarely induce GO. A case of severe amlodipine-induced GO, complicated by inflammatory changes due to plaque accumulation is presented in a 54 years old patient.Treatment was performed as follows: drug substitution; initial periodontal therapy –scaling and root planning (reduction of inflammatory component in the gingival tissues); Er:YAG laser-performed gingivectomy and gingivoplasty; maintenance care. The healing process went uneventful and the postoperative results were extremely esthetically and functionally satisfactory

Astigmatism management during cataract surgery

Цел: да обсъдим и споделим нашия опит при интраоперативната корекция на роговичния астигматизъм по време на катарактна хирургия. Методи: В проучването са включени 48 пациенти с различна степен на роговичен астигматизъм, разделени в две групи. Подборът на метода на корекция на астигматизма беше направен на база на степента на астигматизма след изследване на роговицата с корнеален топограф и томограф. Пациентите с роговичен астигматизъм до 2,5 Д -38 очи третирахме с АК (аркуатни кератотомии), извършени с B&L VICTUS Femtosecond Laser P1atform , при останалите 11 очи имплантирахме торична вътреочна леща. Проследихме пациентите за период от 18 месеца постоперативно. Резултати: И в двете групи получихме желаната корекция на астигматизма постоперативно, В първата група редукцията на астигматизма беше средно 1, 71 dpt ± 0,63 (SD) до 0,28 ± 0,39 (РObjective: To share our experience in correcting corneal astigmatism in patients undergoing cataract surgery. Methods: Our study includes 48 eyes, 37 eyes with a corneal astigmatism of up to 2.50 dpt and 11 eyes with a higher (>2.50dpt) astigmatism. The first group was treated with arcuate keratotomies (AK) performed by B&L VICTUS Femtosecond Laser Platform. The AKs were placed on the steepest corneal meridian in a resulting depth of 85% based on the real-time OCT pachymetry. Patients from group 2 were treated with intraocular toric IOLs. Postsurgical follow-up period was 18 months and includes uncorrected visual acuity, manifest refraction, count and density of endothelial corneal cells prior to and after surgery, pachymetry, corneal topography (Placidobased and Scheimpflug image -derived topography). Results: - The mean astigmatismus reduction in the first group was from 1.71 D ± 0.63 (SD) to 0.28 ± 0.39 D (

Removal of power-line interference from the ECG: a review of the subtraction procedure

BACKGROUND: Modern biomedical amplifiers have a very high common mode rejection ratio. Nevertheless, recordings are often contaminated by residual power-line interference. Traditional analogue and digital filters are known to suppress ECG components near to the power-line frequency. Different types of digital notch filters are widely used despite their inherent contradiction: tolerable signal distortion needs a narrow frequency band, which leads to ineffective filtering in cases of larger frequency deviation of the interference. Adaptive filtering introduces unacceptable transient response time, especially after steep and large QRS complexes. Other available techniques such as Fourier transform do not work in real time. The subtraction procedure is found to cope better with this problem. METHOD: The subtraction procedure was developed some two decades ago, and almost totally eliminates power-line interference from the ECG signal. This procedure does not affect the signal frequency components around the interfering frequency. Digital filtering is applied on linear segments of the signal to remove the interference components. These interference components are stored and further subtracted from the signal wherever non-linear segments are encountered. RESULTS: Modifications of the subtraction procedure have been used in thousands of ECG instruments and computer-aided systems. Other work has extended this procedure to almost all possible cases of sampling rate and interference frequency variation. Improved structure of the on-line procedure has worked successfully regardless of the multiplicity between the sampling rate and the interference frequency. Such flexibility is due to the use of specific filter modules. CONCLUSION: The subtraction procedure has largely proved advantageous over other methods for power-line interference cancellation in ECG signals

2009-2010 Celebrating Chopin & Schumann: From the Studio of Roberta Rust

This concert is a bicentennial celebration of the birth in 1810 of Frederic Chopin and Robert Schumann

Mutation increasing β-carotene concentrations does not adversely affect concentrations of essential mineral elements in pepper fruit

<div><p>Vitamin and mineral deficiencies are prevalent in human populations throughout the world. Vitamin A deficiency affects hundreds of millions of pre-school age children in low income countries. Fruits of pepper (<i>Capsicum annuum</i> L.) can be a major dietary source of precursors to Vitamin A biosynthesis, such as β-carotene. Recently, pepper breeding programs have introduced the orange-fruited (<i>of</i>) trait of the mutant variety Oranzheva kapiya, which is associated with high fruit β-carotene concentrations, to the mutant variety Albena. In this manuscript, concentrations of β-carotene and mineral elements (magnesium, phosphorus, sulphur, potassium, zinc, calcium, manganese, iron and copper) were compared in fruit from P31, a red-fruited genotype derived from the variety Albena, and M38, a genotype developed by transferring the orange-fruited mutation (<i>of</i>) into Albena. It was observed that fruit from M38 plants had greater β-carotene concentration at both commercial and botanical maturity (4.9 and 52.7 mg / kg fresh weight, respectively) than fruit from P31 plants (2.3 and 30.1 mg / kg fresh weight, respectively). The mutation producing high β-carotene concentrations in pepper fruits had no detrimental effect on the concentrations of mineral elements required for human nutrition.</p></div

Ventricular beat detection in single channel electrocardiograms

BACKGROUND: Detection of QRS complexes and other types of ventricular beats is a basic component of ECG analysis. Many algorithms have been proposed and used because of the waves' shape diversity. Detection in a single channel ECG is important for several applications, such as in defibrillators and specialized monitors. METHODS: The developed heuristic algorithm for ventricular beat detection includes two main criteria. The first of them is based on steep edges and sharp peaks evaluation and classifies normal QRS complexes in real time. The second criterion identifies ectopic beats by occurrence of biphasic wave. It is modified to work with a delay of one RR interval in case of long RR intervals. Other algorithm branches classify already detected QRS complexes as ectopic beats if a set of wave parameters is encountered or the ratio of latest two RR intervals RR(i-1)/RR(i )is less than 1:2.5. RESULTS: The algorithm was tested with the AHA and MIT-BIH databases. A sensitivity of 99.04% and a specificity of 99.62% were obtained in detection of 542014 beats. CONCLUSION: The algorithm copes successfully with different complicated cases of single channel ventricular beat detection. It is aimed to simulate to some extent the experience of the cardiologist, rather than to rely on mathematical approaches adopted from the theory of signal analysis. The algorithm is open to improvement, especially in the part concerning the discrimination between normal QRS complexes and ectopic beats