Platelet Function in Acute Experimental Pancreatitis

Acute pancreatitis (AP) is characterized by disturbances of pancreatic microcirculation. It remains unclear whether platelets contribute to these perfusion disturbances. The aim of our study was to investigate platelet activation and function in experimental AP. Acute pancreatitis was induced in rats: (1) control (n = 18; Ringer’s solution), (2) mild AP (n = 18; cerulein), and (3) severe AP (n = 18; glycodeoxycholic acid (GDOC) + cerulein). After 12 h, intravital microscopy was performed. Rhodamine-stained platelets were used to investigate velocity and endothelial adhesion in capillaries and venules. In addition, erythrocyte velocity and leukocyte adhesion were evaluated. Serum amylase, thromboxane A2, and histology were evaluated after 24 h in additional animals of each group. Results showed that 24 h after cerulein application, histology exhibited a mild AP, whereas GDOC induced severe necrotizing AP. Intravital microscopy showed significantly more platelet–endothelium interaction, reduced erythrocyte velocity, and increased leukocyte adherence in animals with AP compared to control animals. Thromboxane levels were significantly elevated in all AP animals and correlated with the extent of platelet activation and severity of AP. In conclusion, platelet activation plays an important role in acute, especially necrotizing, pancreatitis. Mainly temporary platelet–endothelium interaction is observed during mild AP, whereas severe AP is characterized by firm adhesion with consecutive coagulatory activation and perfusion failure

Laparoscopic correction of perforated peptic ulcer: first choice? A review of literature

Background Perforated peptic ulcer (PPU), despite antiulcer medication and Helicobacter eradication, is still the most common indication for emergency gastric surgery associated with high morbidity and mortality. Outcome might be improved by performing this procedure laparoscopically, but there is no consensus on whether the benefits of laparoscopic closure of perforated peptic ulcer outweigh the disadvantages such as prolonged surgery time and greater expense. Methods An electronic literature search was done by using PubMed and EMBASE databases. Relevant papers written between January 1989 and May 2009 were selected and scored according to Effective Public Health Practice Project guidelines. Results Data were extracted from 56 papers, as summarized in Tables 1-7. The overall conversion rate for laparoscopic correction of perforated peptic ulcer was 12.4%, with main reason for conversion being the diameter of perforation. Patients presenting with PPU were predominantly men (79%), with an average age of 48 years. Onethird had a history of peptic ulcer disease, and one-fifth took nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Only 7% presented with shock at admission. There seems to be no consensus on the perfect setup for surgery and/or operating technique. In the laparoscopic groups, operating time was significant longer and incidence of recurrent leakage at the repair site was higher. Nonetheless there was significant less postoperative pain, lower morbidity, less mortality, and shorter hospital stay. Conclusion There are good arguments that laparoscopic correction of PPU should be first treatment of choice. A Boey score of 3, age over 70 years, and symptoms persisting longer than 24 h are associated with higher morbidity and mortality and should be considered contraindications for laparoscopic intervention

LinkedMDR: A Collective Knowledge Representation of a Heterogeneous Document Corpus

International audienceThe ever increasing need for extracting knowledge from heterogeneous data has become a major concern. This is particularly observed in many application domains where several actors, with different expertise, exchange a great amount of information at any stage of a large-scale project. In this paper, we propose LinkedMDR: a novel ontology for Linked Multimedia Document Representation that describes the knowledge of a heterogeneous document corpus in a semantic data network. LinkedMDR combines existing standards and introduces new components that handle the connections between these standards and augment their capabilities. It is generic and offers a pluggable layer that makes it adaptable to different domain-specific knowledge. Experiments conducted on construction projects show that LinkedMDR is applicable in real-world scenarios

Neuro-cognitive mechanisms of global Gestalt perception in visual quantification

© 2018 Recent neuroimaging studies identified posterior regions in the temporal and parietal lobes as neuro-functional correlates of subitizing and global Gestalt perception. Beyond notable overlap on a neuronal level both mechanisms are remarkably similar on a behavioral level representing both a specific form of visual top-down processing where single elements are integrated into a superordinate entity. In the present study, we investigated whether subitizing draws on principles of global Gestalt perception enabling rapid top-down processes of visual quantification. We designed two functional neuroimaging experiments: a task identifying voxels responding to global Gestalt stimuli in posterior temporo-parietal brain regions and a visual quantification task on dot patterns with magnitudes within and outside the subitizing range. We hypothesized that voxels activated in global Gestalt perception should respond stronger to dot patterns within than those outside the subitizing range. The results confirmed this prediction for left-hemispheric posterior temporo-parietal brain areas. Additionally, we trained a classifier with response patterns from global Gestalt perception to predict neural responses of visual quantification. With this approach we were able to classify from TPJ Gestalt ROIs of both hemispheres whether a trial requiring subitizing was processed. The present study demonstrates that mechanisms of subitizing seem to build on processes of high-level visual perception