Automated Risk Identification of Myocardial Infarction Using Relative Frequency Band Coefficient (RFBC) Features from ECG

Various structural and functional changes associated with ischemic (myocardial infarcted) heart cause amplitude and spectral changes in signals obtained at different leads of ECG. In order to capture these changes, Relative Frequency Band Coefficient (RFBC) features from 12-lead ECG have been proposed and used for automated identification of myocardial infarction risk. RFBC features reduces the effect of subject variabilty in body composition on the amplitude dependent features. The proposed method is evaluated on ECG data from PTB diagnostic database using support vector machine as classifier. The promising result suggests that the proposed RFBC features may be used in the screening and clinical decision support system for myocardial infarction

Disappearance of myocardial perfusion defects on prone SPECT imaging: Comparison with cardiac magnetic resonance imaging in patients without established coronary artery disease

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>It is of great clinical importance to exclude myocardial infarction in patients with suspected coronary artery disease who do not have stress-induced ischemia. The diagnostic use of myocardial perfusion single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) in this situation is sometimes complicated by attenuation artifacts that mimic myocardial infarction. Imaging in the prone position has been suggested as a method to overcome this problem.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this study, 52 patients without known prior infarction and no stress-induced ischemia on SPECT imaging were examined in both supine and prone position. The results were compared with cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) with delayed-enhancement technique to confirm or exclude myocardial infarction.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There were 63 defects in supine-position images, 37 of which disappeared in the prone position. None of the 37 defects were associated with myocardial infarction by CMR, indicating that all of them represented attenuation artifacts. Of the remaining 26 defects that did not disappear on prone imaging, myocardial infarction was confirmed by CMR in 2; the remaining 24 had no sign of ischemic infarction but 2 had other kinds of myocardial injuries. In 3 patients, SPECT failed to detect small scars identified by CMR.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Perfusion defects in the supine position that disappeared in the prone position were caused by attenuation, not myocardial infarction. Hence, imaging in the prone position can help to rule out ischemic heart disease for some patients admitted for SPECT with suspected but not documented ischemic heart disease. This would indicate a better prognosis and prevent unnecessary further investigations and treatment.</p

Hyaluronic acid covers in burn treatment: a systematic review

Abstract OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effectiveness of hyaluronic acid in the healing of partial thickness burns. METHOD Systematic review of randomized controlled trials on the use of hyaluronic acid for the topical treatment of skin burns, based on recommendations of the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. RESULTS Two randomized controlled trials that analyzed 143 patients with partial thickness burns and/or deep partial thickness burns were selected. They compared the application of hyaluronic acid 0.2% associated to silver sulfadiazine 1% 5g/cm2 versus silver sulfadiazine 1% 5g/cm2 alone for the outcome of complete healing. CONCLUSION This review emphasizes the need for new well-designed randomized controlled trials to establish the therapeutic relevance of hyaluronic acid with respect to the healing of burns of partial thickness or deep partial thickness

Molecular fusion within fullerene clusters induced by femtosecond laser excitation

Molecular fusion is induced in clusters of fullerene molecules on excitation with fs laser pulses. The dependence of the mass distributions of the fused products on the initial cluster distribution are studied and results for (C60)N and (C70)N clusters are compared. The fused products decay by emitting C2 molecules and the fragmentation spectrum is used to determine the initial excitation energy of the fused species. The threshold excitation energy needed to induce fusion is consistent with the energetic thresholds for molecular fusion of fullerenes determined previously in single collision experiments

Protein D, an immunoglobulin D-binding protein of Haemophilus influenzae: cloning, nucleotide sequence, and expression in Escherichia coli.

The gene for protein D, a membrane-associated protein with specific affinity for human immunoglobulin D, was cloned from a nontypeable strain of Haemophilus influenzae. The gene was expressed in Escherichia coli from an endogenous promoter, and the gene product has an apparent molecular weight equal to that of H. influenzae protein D (42,000). The complete nucleotide sequence of the gene for protein D was determined, and the deduced amino acid sequence of 364 residues includes a putative signal sequence of 18 amino acids containing a consensus sequence, Leu-Ala-Gly-Cys, for bacterial lipoproteins. The sequence of protein D shows no similarity to those of other immunoglobulin-binding proteins. Protein D is the first example of immunoglobulin receptors from gram-negative bacteria that has been cloned and sequenced

Dynamical aspects of thermionic emission of C

We present the first experimental results of the time-dependent photoelectron spectrum observed in thermionic emission of hot C60 excited by multiphoton absorption. Time resolved velocity-map imaging is used to record photoelectron spectra. As opposed to the evolution of the total photoelectron current that follows a power law as a function of the delay after excitation, it is shown that the photoelectron spectrum bears precise information on the degree of excitation of the ensemble of clusters. The effective temperature deduced from the experimental spectrum is found to be directly related to the average internal energy in the initial step of the decay, while after typically 1 μs the photoelectron spectrum is almost independent on the initial excitation process. The subsequent evolution of the spectrum as a function of the time-delay after excitation is found to be very slow

Molecular fusion within fullerene clusters induced by femtosecond laser excitation

Molecular fusion is induced in clusters of fullerene molecules on excitation with fs laser pulses. The dependence of the mass distributions of the fused products on the initial cluster distribution are studied and results for (C60)N and (C70)N clusters are compared. The fused products decay by emitting C2 molecules and the fragmentation spectrum is used to determine the initial excitation energy of the fused species. The threshold excitation energy needed to induce fusion is consistent with the energetic thresholds for molecular fusion of fullerenes determined previously in single collision experiments