Does exercise-induced myocardial ischaemia cause enhanced platelet activation and fibrin formation in patients with stable angina and severe coronary artery disease?

In this study, betathromboglobulin (BTG) and fibrinopeptide A (FPA) in peripheral venous blood were measured in 20 patients with stable angina pectoris before and immediately after exercise-induced myocardial ischaemia; in 5 of the 20 patients stable angina was associated with typical peripheral artery disease. A total of 10 patients with angiographically documented peripheral artery disease without angina and 10 normal volunteers were taken as control groups. BTG and FPA in the 15 patients with stable angina before exercise were 41±14 ng ml-1 and 2.3±09 ng ml-1 and were not statistically different from the values in normal controls; after exercise-induced myocardial ischaemia no significant increase occurred in these patients. Conversely, in the 5 patients with stable angina associated with peripheral artery disease BTG and FPA before exercise were 6l±10 ng ml-1 and 3.5±0.8 ng ml-1 and increased to 114±14 ng ml-1 (P<0.001) and 4.l±0.5 ng ml-1 (P<0.01): These results were similar to those found in the 10 patients with isolated peripheral artery disease. We conclude that BTG and FPA in peripheral venous blood in patients with stable angina are not elevated either at rest or after exercise-induced myocardial ischaemia. Elevated values of BTG and FPA in patients with stable angina may reflect a major interaction between blood and atherosclerotic vessel wall, suggesting the presence of associated atherosclerotic lesions in peripheral artery diseas

Platelet inhibitors versus anticoagulants for prevention of aorto-coronary bypass graft occlusion

The effects of the antiaggregant substance ticlopidine and of the anticoagulant acenocoumarol on patency rates of aorto-coronary bypass grafts were compared in a prospective randomized trial. Ticlopidine, 250 mg b.i.d. was administered orally from the first postoperative day till angiography, while anticoagulation with acenocoumarol was initiated on the second to third postoperative day. Side-effects of ticlopidine were rare and patient management with the standard dosage of this drug was easier than oral anticoagulation. From an initial group of 166 randomized patients 149 completed the trial by coronary angiography three months postoperatively. The 78 patients in the ticlopidine group showed a compliance of 85%. The average prothrombin time in the 71 patients receiving acenocoumarol was 26.9%. Detailed statistical analysis of the two study groups revealed no reason to doubt the correctness of randomization. Coronary angiography showed an average patency rate per patient of 84% with ticlopidine and of 82% with acenocoumarol. This and various other measures of graft occlusion did not reveal any substantial difference in graft patency of patients receiving ticlopidine or acenocoumarol. It is concluded that ticlopidine may well be used instead of anticoagulants forprevention of postoperative occlusion of aorto-coronary bypass graft

Should we adjust health education methodology to low-educated employees needs? Findings from Latvia, Poland, Slovenia and Spain

Objectives: The presented study explored health beliefs and experiences as well as health education needs of low-educated employees (LEEs) (incomplete primary, primary, lower secondary and basic vocational education) in comparison to those with higher education (secondary and tertiary education) in four European countries: Latvia, Poland, Slovenia and Spain. The main aim was to identify a specificity of low-educated employees (LEEs) by capturing their opinions, experiences, attitudes and needs concerning health education. Material and Methods: The sample consisted of 1691 individuals with the status of an employee (approximately 400 respondents in each of 4 countries participating in the project). The respondents were aged 25-54 (both the control group and the target group consisted in 1/3 of the following age groups: 25-34, 35-44 and 45-54). The respondents were interviewed during the years 2009 and 2010 with a structured questionnaire concerning their health, health behaviours as well as educational needs concerning health education. Results: The study revealed substantial differences in the attitudes of people from this group concerning methodology of health education. LEEs prefer more competitions and campaigns and less written educational materials in comparison to those with higher education. Additionally, they more often perceive a fee, longer time, necessity to take part in a knowledge test and a concern that their health will be checked as factors that can discourage them from taking part in a health training. On the other hand, LEEs can by encouraged to take part in such a training by a media broadcast concerning the event, snacks or lottery during the training, or financial incentives. Conclusions: The results of the study proved the need for specific health education guidelines to conduct health education for low-educated employees. These guidelines should take in account the sources of health education preferred by LEEs as well as the factors that can encourage/discourage their participation in trainings concerning health

Étude expérimentale de la conductivité électrique du molybdate de COBALT CoMoO

La conductivité électrique du molybdate de cobalt CoMoO4 a été mesurée dans le domaine de température 100-600 °C, à partir d'échantillons pulvérulents sous forme de pastille. Il a été trouvé que la variété a-CoMoO4 est un semi-conducteur de type p, tandis que la variété b-CoMoO4 est un semi-conducteur de type n.Différents mécanismes de conduction ont été trouvés en fonction de la variété polymorphique de CoMoO4 et de la pression partielle d'oxygène. Leur nature est discutée

Zur binodalen Erkrankung: kranker Sinusknoten und AV-Block. [Binodal disease: diseased sinus node and atrioventricular block]

Atrioventricular (AV) conduction disturbances in patients (pts) with sick sinus syndrome (SSS) are well known, but sinus node function (SNF) in AV block is not well documented. We therefore performed electrophysiological tests to evaluate SNF in 30 pts with high-degree AV block (group 1) and AV conduction in 15 pts with SSS (group 1). These measurements were repeated after vagolysis with atropine in group 2. In group 1 ergometry was performed if the electrophysiological SNF tests were abnormal. Results (mean +/- 1 SD) for group 1 were: sinus node recovery time (SNRT) 1184 +/- 473 ms, corrected SNRT (cSNRT) 337 +/- 394 ms. In 3 pts SNRT or cSNRT was abnormal. In these 3 pts the response of sinus rate to exercise was insufficient. In group 2 SNRT before and after atropine was 2345 +/- 822 ms and 1558 +/- 815 ms respectively (p less than 0.05), cSNRT 1285 +/- 965 ms and 954 +/- 832 ms (n.s.), sinoatrial conduction time 319 +/- 283 ms and 150 +/- 149 ms (n.s.), and Wenckebach point 532 +/- 178 ms and 383 +/- 68 ms (p less than 0.01). His-ventricle time was 48 +/- 5.8 ms. In 6 of these 15 pts impaired AV-conduction was present (defined as Wenckebach point below 500 ms), but normalized in 4 pts after atropine. We postulate that persistence of abnormal SNF and AV conduction after vagolysis is an argument for organic binodal disease. This occurs with equal frequency in both groups in about 10% of patients. Increased vagal tone is common in SSS and uncommon in AV block. In patients with SSS the frequent additional AV conduction delay must be taken into consideration when atrial pacing is considered

Bypassing Joins in Disjunctive Queries

In this paper we develop a novel optimization strategy for disjunctive queries involving join predicates. This work is an extension of our previously published approach [KMPS94] for optimizing disjunctive selection predicates by generating two output streams from selection operators: a &quot;true&quot;-stream for objects (tuples) satisfying the selection predicate and a &quot;false&quot;-stream for those objects not satisfying the predicate. Then, each stream undergoes an individual, &quot;customized&quot; optimization. Here, we extend the basic idea of [KMPS94] to disjunctive queries with join operators. Analogously to selections, we propose to generate two output streams from a join operator: one &quot;true&quot;-stream for pairs of objects (of the two input streams) that satisfy the join predicate and one &quot;false&quot;- stream for those pairs not satisfying it. In combination with the extended selection predicate processing, this provides a large potential for efficiently evaluating disjunctive queries because it allows to &quot;byp..