Echocardiography practice, training and accreditation in the intensive care: document for the World Interactive Network Focused on Critical Ultrasound (WINFOCUS)

Echocardiography is increasingly used in the management of the critically ill patient as a non-invasive diagnostic and monitoring tool. Whilst in few countries specialized national training schemes for intensive care unit (ICU) echocardiography have been developed, specific guidelines for ICU physicians wishing to incorporate echocardiography into their clinical practice are lacking. Further, existing echocardiography accreditation does not reflect the requirements of the ICU practitioner. The WINFOCUS (World Interactive Network Focused On Critical UltraSound) ECHO-ICU Group drew up a document aimed at providing guidance to individual physicians, trainers and the relevant societies of the requirements for the development of skills in echocardiography in the ICU setting. The document is based on recommendations published by the Royal College of Radiologists, British Society of Echocardiography, European Association of Echocardiography and American Society of Echocardiography, together with international input from established practitioners of ICU echocardiography. The recommendations contained in this document are concerned with theoretical basis of ultrasonography, the practical aspects of building an ICU-based echocardiography service as well as the key components of standard adult TTE and TEE studies to be performed on the ICU. Specific issues regarding echocardiography in different ICU clinical scenarios are then described

Mobile measurement techniques for local and micro-scale studies in urban and topo-climatology

Technical development during the last two decades has brought new potential and new applications for ­mobile measurements. In this paper, we present six case studies where mobile measurement devices were used to acquire data for meteorological and climatological research. Three case studies deal with ground-based mobile measurements – on buses for urban climate measurements and on a vessel on a lake – and three with airborne platforms – on a cable car and on an unmanned aerial vehicle for vertical soundings and on a tethered balloon sonde for cloud physics. For each study, we describe the measurement set-up and address the potential and drawbacks of these applications. At the end, we discuss general aspects related to mobile observations especially concerning the time and space dimension of measurements

Expression of the chemokine receptor CXCR1 in human glomerular disease.

Leukocyte infiltration, a hallmark of renal diseases, is orchestrated in part by the actions of chemokines. The chemokine CXCL8/interleukin (IL)-8 is expressed during renal diseases and allograft rejection, whereas the corresponding receptor CXCR1 has not been described previously. Expression of CXCR1 was characterized in peripheral blood using multicolor fluorescence-activated cell sorter analysis (FACS). CXCR1 was localized in 81 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded renal specimens by immunohistochemistry using a monoclonal antibody against human CXCR1. Included were biopsies with crescentic glomerulonephritis (CGN, n=22), immunoglobulin (Ig) A nephropathy (n=15), membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN, n=17), lupus nephritis (n=12), membranous nephropathy (n=11), and non-involved parts of tumor nephrectomies (n=4). Consecutive tissue sections of human tonsils, allograft explants, and renal biopsies were stained for CD15- and CD68-positive cells. Expression of CXCR1 and CXCL8/IL-8 mRNA was quantified by real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerse chain reaction of microdissected renal biopsies (n=35) of the same disease entities. By FACS CXCR1 expression was found on polymorphonuclear CXCR1 expression by polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs), natural killer cells, and a subpopulation of monocytes. By immunohistochemistry, CXCR1 expression was found on infiltrating inflammatory cells (predominantly PMNs), as well as on intrinsic renal cells (arterial smooth muscle cells, endothelial cells of peritubular capillaries). The distribution pattern of CXCR1 differed between disease entities. The highest numbers of glomerular CXCR1-positive cells were present in biopsies with MPGN, followed by lupus nephritis, and CGN. CXCR1 might be involved in the recruitment of PMNs to the glomerular tuft, which could be targeted by CXCR1-blocking agents