Utilidad clínica del electrocardiograma : valor práctico, usos y limitaciones. ¿El electrocardiógrafo puede ser una herramienta útil y necesaria o solo un juguete para algunos especialistas?

En este artículo, los autores pretenden disipar nuestras dudas acerca del coste de los equipos de electrocardiografía, si son o no rentables y qué modelos son los más adecuados.In this article the authors try to help us about the cost of an electrocardiographic equipment, íf it is or it is not profitabe and what models are the best

Protocolos anestésicos de utilidad práctica en la clínica del perro y del gato

En este trabajo los autores pretenden recoger los protocolos anestésicos más utilizados en el perro y el gato, comentando únicamente las dosis, vías de administración y combinaciones de anestésicos utilizados en su experiencia clínica, presentando la información como una serie de tablas de consulta rápida que permitan obtener la mínima información necesaria de manera inmediata. La disposición de esta información de consulta debería ser completada con los manuales de anestesia y los artículos científicos recogidos en la bibliografía final, del mismo modo que las formas comerciales y sus concentraciones actuales deben ser revisadas antes del uso de cualquiera de estos protocolos, ya que pueden sufrir cambios dependientes del fabricante. Los productos comerciales citados son los utilizados por los autores en la clínica diaria, sin ánimo publicitario y seleccionados por su coste económico, facilidad de disponibilidad a través de oficinas de farmacia, garantías ofrecidas por el fabricante o tener las concentraciones más idóneas. Actualmente todos los productos citados están disponibles en España a través de oficina de farmacia.In this paper the authors pick up the usual anaesthesia combinations used more frecuently in the dog and cat, exposing just the dosages, and route of administration that they use in their clinical practice, presenting the information as quick consultation charts and tables that allow the reader to obtain the minimum necessary data inmediately. Those quick rejerence charts must be completed with the anaesthesia textbooks and papers compiled in the bibliography, the reader should confirm the available comercial forms and their actual concentrations. Comercial forms are the ones used by the authors, without any publicity purposes and they are selected because their economical cost, easy way of obtaining them from pharmacy, the guarantee of the drug company or because they have the more usefull concentrations. Actually, all of them are available in Spain through any pharmacy

Medetomidina/Atipamezol, su papel en la anestesia de animales de compañía en la clínica privada : primeras experiencias clínicas

En el presente trabajo, los autores revisan sus primeras experiencias clínicas sobre la utilización de una combinación de un agonista alfa-2 central: medetomidina y un agente selectivo de reversión: atipamezol, en la sedación, contención farmacológica, premedicación y anestesia de perros y gatos en la clínica diaria. Se aportan los datos de los pacientes incluidos en el estudio, los procedimientos clínicos a los que fueron sometidos, los efectos secundarios encontrados con el uso de tales medicamentos y la forma de evitarlos en la medida de lo posible o enfrentarse a ellos cuando se presentan.In this paper the authors review their first clinical experiences with a combination of an alpha-2 adrenergic central agonist: medetomidine and its reversal agent: atipamezole, in the sedation, premedication and anaesthesia of dogs and cats in clinical practice. The authors summarize data obtained from patients, the clinical procedures done, the undesirable side effects found with their use and which is their actual approach in arder to prevent them or how they manage those secondary effects when they re already present

Top condensation model: a step towards the correct prediction of the Higgs mass

A realization of the composite Higgs scenario in the context of the effective model with the $SU(2)_L\times U(1)_R$ symmetric four-Fermi interactions proposed by Miransky, Tanabashi and Yamawaki is studied. The model implements Nambu's mechanism of dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking leading to the formation of $\bar tt$ and $\bar bb$ quark condensates. We explore the vacuum structure and spectrum of the model by using the Schwinger proper-time method. As a direct consequence of this mechanism, the Higgs acquires a mass in accord with its experimental value. The present prediction essentially differs from the known overestimated value, $m_\chi= 2m_t$, making more favourable the top condensation scenario presented here. The mass formulas for the members of the second Higgs doublet are also obtained. The Nambu sum rule is discussed. It is shown that the anomalous $U(1)_A$ symmetry breaking modifies this rule at next to leading order in $1/N_c$.Comment: 14 pages, version to appear in EPJ

Assessing the mechanical weakness of vertebrae affected by primary tumors : a feasibility study

Patients spend months between the primary spinal tumor diagnosis and the surgical treatment, due to the need for performing chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy. During this period, they are exposed to an unknown risk of fracture. The aim of this study was to assess if it is possible to measure the mechanical strain in vertebrae affected by primary tumors, so as to open the way to an evidence-based scoring or prediction tool. We performed biomechanical tests on three vertebrae with bone tumor removed from patients. The tests were designed so as not to compromise the standard surgical and diagnostic procedures. Non-destructive mechanical tests in combination with state-of-the-art digital image correlation allowed to measure the distribution of strain on the surface of the vertebra. Our study has shown that the strains in the tumor region is circa 3 times higher than in the healthy bones, with principal strain peaks of 40,000/−20,000 microstrain, indicating a stress concentration potentially triggering vertebral fracture. This study has proven it is possible to analyze the mechanical behavior of primary tumor vertebrae as part of the clinical treatment protocol. This will allow building a tool for quantifying the risk of fracture and improving decision making in spine tumors

Estudio de los parámetros endoscópicos en 48 perros con colitis linfoplasmocitaria

En el presente trabajo se realiza un estudio en cuarenta y ocho perros, sobre los hallazgos endoscópicos que caracterizan a la colitislinfoplasmocitaria. La colitis linfoplasmocitaria es una enfermedad difusa que afecta en mayor o menor grado a todas las porciones del colon. Sin embargo, los resultados del estudio demuestran que el colon descendente y el colon transverso tienen mayor predisposición a presentar úlceras y erosiones, y por tanto, también a la posterior presentación de zonas de fibrosis.In this paper the gross endoscopic appearance of lymphocytic-plasmocytic colitis was studied in forty-eight dogs. Lymphocytic-plasmocytic colitis is a díffuse disease involving all the colonic portions. Nevertheless, the results of our study showed that descending and transverse colon were particularly prone to develop ulcerative and consequent fibrotic lesions

Experimental validation of a subject-specific finite element model of lumbar spine segment using digital image correlation

Pathologies such as cancer metastasis and osteoporosis strongly affect the mechanical properties of the vertebral bone and increase the risk of fragility fractures. The prediction of the fracture risk with a patient-specific model, directly generated from the diagnostic images of the patient, could help the clinician in the choice of the correct therapy to follow. But before such models can be used to support any clinical decision, their credibility must be demonstrated through verification, validation, and uncertainty quantification. In this study we describe a procedure for the generation of such patient-specific finite element models and present a first validation of the kinematics of the spine segment. Quantitative computed tomography images of a cadaveric lumbar spine segment presenting vertebral metastatic lesions were used to generate the model. The applied boundary conditions replicated a specific experimental test where the spine segment was loaded in compression-flexion. Model predictions in terms of vertebral surface displacements were compared against the full-field experimental displacements measured with Digital Image Correlation. A good agreement was obtained from the local comparison between experimental data and simulation results (R2 > 0.9 and RMSE% <8%). In conclusion, this work demonstrates the possibility to apply the developed modelling pipeline to predict the displacement field of human spine segment under physiological loading conditions, which is a first fundamental step in the credibility assessment of these clinical decision-support technology

Protocol for the Reconstructing Consciousness and Cognition (ReCCognition) Study

Important scientific and clinical questions persist about general anesthesia despite the ubiquitous clinical use of anesthetic drugs in humans since their discovery. For example, it is not known how the brain reconstitutes consciousness and cognition after the profound functional perturbation of the anesthetized state, nor has a specific pattern of functional recovery been characterized. To date, there has been a lack of detailed investigation into rates of recovery and the potential orderly return of attention, sensorimotor function, memory, reasoning and logic, abstract thinking, and processing speed. Moreover, whether such neurobehavioral functions display an invariant sequence of return across individuals is similarly unknown. To address these questions, we designed a study of healthy volunteers undergoing general anesthesia with electroencephalography and serial testing of cognitive functions (NCT01911195). The aims of this study are to characterize the temporal patterns of neurobehavioral recovery over the first several hours following termination of a deep inhaled isoflurane general anesthetic and to identify common patterns of cognitive function recovery. Additionally, we will conduct spectral analysis and reconstruct functional networks from electroencephalographic data to identify any neural correlates (e.g., connectivity patterns, graph-theoretical variables) of cognitive recovery after the perturbation of general anesthesia. To accomplish these objectives, we will enroll a total of 60 consenting adults aged 20–40 across the three participating sites. Half of the study subjects will receive general anesthesia slowly titrated to loss of consciousness (LOC) with an intravenous infusion of propofol and thereafter be maintained for 3 h with 1.3 age adjusted minimum alveolar concentration of isoflurane, while the other half of subjects serves as awake controls to gauge effects of repeated neurobehavioral testing, spontaneous fatigue and endogenous rest-activity patterns

Distributed goal-oriented computing

For current computing frameworks, the ability to dynamically use the resources that are allocated in the network has become a key success factor. As long as the size of the network increases, it is more difficult to find how to solve the problems that the users are presenting. Users usually do know what they want to do, but they do not know how to do it. If the user knows its goals it could be easier to help him with a different approach. In this work we present a new computing paradigm based on goals. This paradigm is called Distributed goal-oriented computing paradigm. To implement this paradigm an execution framework for a goal-oriented operating system has been designed. In this paradigm users express their goals and the OS is in charge of helping the achievement of these goals by means of a service-oriented approach. © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.This work is supported by TIN2008-04446 and TIN2009-13839-C03-01 projects of the Spanish Government, PROMETEO/2008/051 project, FEDER funds and CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010 under grant CSD2007-00022.Palanca Cámara, J.; Navarro Llácer, M.; Julian Inglada, VJ.; García-Fornes, A. (2012). Distributed goal-oriented computing. Journal of Systems and Software. 85(7):1540-1557. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2012.01.045S1540155785