Preliminary Clinical Results of a Biphasic Waveform and an RV Lead System

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72921/1/j.1540-8159.1999.tb00500.x.pd

Laser treatment in diabetic retinopathy

Diabetic retinopathy is a leading cause of visual impairment and blindness in developed countries due to macular edema and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR). For both complications laser treatment may offer proven therapy: the Diabetic Retinopathy Study demonstrated that panretinal scatter photocoagulation reduces the risk of severe visual loss by >= 50% in eyes with high-risk characteristics. Pan-retinal scatter coagulation may also be beneficial in other PDR and severe nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) under certain conditions. For clinically significant macular edema the Early Treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy Study could show that immediate focal laser photocoagulation reduces the risk of moderate visual loss by at least 50%. When and how to perform laser treatment is described in detail, offering a proven treatment for many problems associated with diabetic retinopathy based on a high evidence level. Copyright (c) 2007 S. Karger AG, Basel

Improvements in 25 Years of Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator Therapy

In 1980, Dr. Michel Mirowski and his team inserted the first implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) in a patient. Initially, ICD therapy was not widely accepted, and many physicians actually considered this therapy unethical. Large secondary and primary prevention trials, demonstrating a beneficial effect of ICD therapy in selected patients not only on arrhythmic death but also on all-cause mortality, stimulated a rapid growth in the number of implants and increased patient’s and physician’s acceptance. Improvements in size and weight, arrhythmia discrimination capabilities, battery technology, shock waveform and output, monitoring capabilities and defibrillator electrode technology eventually resulted in the current large number of yearly implants. Today, almost 40 years after the conception of the ICD and 25 years after the first human implant, ICD therapy is the treatment of choice for patients at risk for life-threatening arrhythmias either as secondary or primary prevention. Furthermore, with the more recent addition of resynchronisation therapy to standard ICD therapy, it became possible to treat selected patients with advanced symptoms of heart failure and to lower the risk of sudden death

Measurement of the B0 anti-B0 oscillation frequency using l- D*+ pairs and lepton flavor tags

The oscillation frequency Delta-md of B0 anti-B0 mixing is measured using the partially reconstructed semileptonic decay anti-B0 -> l- nubar D*+ X. The data sample was collected with the CDF detector at the Fermilab Tevatron collider during 1992 - 1995 by triggering on the existence of two lepton candidates in an event, and corresponds to about 110 pb-1 of pbar p collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.8 TeV. We estimate the proper decay time of the anti-B0 meson from the measured decay length and reconstructed momentum of the l- D*+ system. The charge of the lepton in the final state identifies the flavor of the anti-B0 meson at its decay. The second lepton in the event is used to infer the flavor of the anti-B0 meson at production. We measure the oscillation frequency to be Delta-md = 0.516 +/- 0.099 +0.029 -0.035 ps-1, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic.Comment: 30 pages, 7 figures. Submitted to Physical Review

Search for New Particles Decaying to top-antitop in proton-antiproton collisions at squareroot(s)=1.8 TeV

We use 106 \ipb of data collected with the Collider Detector at Fermilab to search for narrow-width, vector particles decaying to a top and an anti-top quark. Model independent upper limits on the cross section for narrow, vector resonances decaying to \ttbar are presented. At the 95% confidence level, we exclude the existence of a leptophobic \zpr boson in a model of topcolor-assisted technicolor with mass M_{\zpr} $<$ 480 \gev for natural width $\Gamma$ = 0.012 M_{\zpr}, and M_{\zpr} $<$ 780 \gev for $\Gamma$ = 0.04 M_{\zpr}.Comment: The CDF Collaboration, submitted to PRL 25-Feb-200

Double Diffraction Dissociation at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider

We present results from a measurement of double diffraction dissociation in $\bar pp$ collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. The production cross section for events with a central pseudorapidity gap of width $\Delta\eta^0>3$ (overlapping $\eta=0$) is found to be $4.43\pm 0.02{(stat)}{\pm 1.18}{(syst) mb}$ [$3.42\pm 0.01{(stat)}{\pm 1.09}{(syst) mb}$] at $\sqrt{s}=1800$ [630] GeV. Our results are compared with previous measurements and with predictions based on Regge theory and factorization.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, using RevTeX. Submitted to Physical Review Letter

A Measurement of the Differential Dijet Mass Cross Section in p-pbar Collisions at sqrt{s}=1.8 TeV

We present a measurement of the cross section for production of two or more jets as a function of dijet mass, based on an integrated luminosity of 86 pb^-1 collected with the Collider Detector at Fermilab. Our dijet mass spectrum is described within errors by next-to-leading order QCD predictions using CTEQ4HJ parton distributions, and is in good agreement with a similar measurement from the D0 experiment.Comment: 18 pages including 2 figures and 3 tables. Submitted to Phys. Rev. D Rapid Communication

Origin of the Diversity in DNA Recognition Domains in Phasevarion Associated modA Genes of Pathogenic Neisseria and Haemophilus influenzae

Phase variable restriction-modification (R-M) systems have been identified in a range of pathogenic bacteria. In some it has been demonstrated that the random switching of the mod (DNA methyltransferase) gene mediates the coordinated expression of multiple genes and constitutes a phasevarion (phase variable regulon). ModA of Neisseria and Haemophilus influenzae contain a highly variable, DNA recognition domain (DRD) that defines the target sequence that is modified by methylation and is used to define modA alleles. 18 distinct modA alleles have been identified in H. influenzae and the pathogenic Neisseria. To determine the origin of DRD variability, the 18 modA DRDs were used to search the available databases for similar sequences. Significant matches were identified between several modA alleles and mod gene from distinct bacterial species, indicating one source of the DRD variability was via horizontal gene transfer. Comparison of DRD sequences revealed significant mosaicism, indicating exchange between the Neisseria and H. influenzae modA alleles. Regions of high inter- and intra-allele similarity indicate that some modA alleles had undergone recombination more frequently than others, generating further diversity. Furthermore, the DRD from some modA alleles, such as modA12, have been transferred en bloc to replace the DRD from different modA alleles

Differential In Vitro Effects of Intravenous versus Oral Formulations of Silibinin on the HCV Life Cycle and Inflammation

Silymarin prevents liver disease in many experimental rodent models, and is the most popular botanical medicine consumed by patients with hepatitis C. Silibinin is a major component of silymarin, consisting of the flavonolignans silybin A and silybin B, which are insoluble in aqueous solution. A chemically modified and soluble version of silibinin, SIL, has been shown to potently reduce hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA levels in vivo when administered intravenously. Silymarin and silibinin inhibit HCV infection in cell culture by targeting multiple steps in the virus lifecycle. We tested the hepatoprotective profiles of SIL and silibinin in assays that measure antiviral and anti-inflammatory functions. Both mixtures inhibited fusion of HCV pseudoparticles (HCVpp) with fluorescent liposomes in a dose-dependent fashion. SIL inhibited 5 clinical genotype 1b isolates of NS5B RNA dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) activity better than silibinin, with IC50 values of 40–85 µM. The enhanced activity of SIL may have been in part due to inhibition of NS5B binding to RNA templates. However, inhibition of the RdRps by both mixtures plateaued at 43–73%, suggesting that the products are poor overall inhibitors of RdRp. Silibinin did not inhibit HCV replication in subgenomic genotype 1b or 2a replicon cell lines, but it did inhibit JFH-1 infection. In contrast, SIL inhibited 1b but not 2a subgenomic replicons and also inhibited JFH-1 infection. Both mixtures inhibited production of progeny virus particles. Silibinin but not SIL inhibited NF-κB- and IFN-B-dependent transcription in Huh7 cells. However, both mixtures inhibited T cell proliferation to similar degrees. These data underscore the differences and similarities between the intravenous and oral formulations of silibinin, which could influence the clinical effects of this mixture on patients with chronic liver diseases

Radiofrequency Treatment of Facet-related Pain: Evidence and Controversies

Pain originating from the lumbar facet joints is estimated to represent about 15% of all low back pain complaints. The diagnostic block is considered to be a valuable tool for confirming facetogenic pain. It was demonstrated that a block of the ramus medialis of the ramus dorsalis is preferred over an intra-articular injection. The outcome of the consequent radiofrequency treatment is not different in patients reporting over 80% pain relief after the diagnostic block than in those who have between 50% and 79% pain relief. There is one well-conducted comparative trial assessing the value of one or two controlled diagnostic blocks to none. The results of the seven randomized trials on the use of radiofrequency treatment of facet joint pain demonstrate that good patient selection is imperative for good clinical outcome. Therefore, we suggest one block of the ramus medialis of the ramus dorsalis before radiofrequency treatment