Cerebral oximetry monitoring during aortic arch aneurysm replacement surgery in Jehovah's Witness patient -A case report-

Anesthetic management for aortic arch aneurysm (AAA) surgery employing deep hypothermic circulatory arrest in a Jehovah's Witness (JW) patient is a challenge to anesthesiologist due to its complexity of procedures and their refusal of allogeneic transfusion. Even in the strict application of intraoperative acute normovolemic hemodilution (ANH) and intraopertive cell salvage (ICS) technique, prompt timing of re-administration of salvaged blood is essential for successful operation without allogeneic transfusion or ischemic complication of major organs. Cerebral oximetery (rSO2) monitoring using near infrared spectroscopy is a useful modality for detecting cerebral ischemia during the AAA surgery requiring direct interruption of cerebral flow. The present case showed that rSO2 can be used as a trigger facilitating to find a better timing for the re-administration of salvaged blood acquired during the AAA surgery for JW patient

Abrupt formation of intracardiac thrombus during cardiopulmonary bypass with full heparinization -A case report-

Intracardiac thrombus during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) with full heparinization is very rare but fatal. A 60-year-old woman was scheduled for aortic and mitral valve repairs with a maze procedure for mixed aortic and mitral valvular heart disease with atrial fibrillation. Preoperative transthoracic echocardiography and cardiac computed tomography showed moderate aortic regurgitation and moderate mitral stenosis with regurgitation. There was no intracardiac thrombus. Aortic and mitral valve repairs with the maze procedure were successfully performed without unexpected events. During CPB weaning, a mobile hyper-echogenic mass in the left atrium was detected on transesophageal echocardiography. After cardiac arrest, it was surgically removed. On completion of the operation, weaning from CPB was accomplished uneventfully. The patient fully recovered and was discharged from the intensive care unit on her third postoperative day

UKIRT Widefield Infrared Survey for Fe+

The United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT)Widefield Infrared Survey for Fe+ (UWIFE) is a 180 deg2 imaging survey of the first Galactic quadrant (7° < l < 62° |b| <1°.5) that uses a narrow-band filter centred on the [Fe II] 1.644-μm emission line. The [Fe II] 1.644-μm emission is a good tracer of dense, shock-excited gas, and the survey will probe violent environments around stars: star-forming regions, evolved stars, and supernova remnants, among others. The UWIFE survey is designed to complement the existing UKIRTW idefield Infrared Survey for H2 (UWISH2). The survey will also complement existing broad-band surveys. The observed images have a nominal 5Ï? detection limit of 18.7 mag for point sources, with a median seeing of 0.83 arcsec. For extended sources, we estimate a surface brightness limit of 8.1 Ã? 10-20 W m-2 arcsec-2. In this paper, we present an overview and some preliminary results of this survey. © 2014 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society

A comparative study of the pharmacokinetics of traditional and automated dosing/blood sampling systems using gabapentin

Objective: The present study was undertaken to investigate the pharmacokinetics (PKs) of gabapentin as determined by traditional manual blood sampling and by using an automated dosing/blood sampling technique in awake and freely moving rats using combined liquid chromatography tandem mass-spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Materials and Methods: PK comparisons were conducted by allocating rats into two groups; an automated dosing/blood sampling (ADI/ABS) group (IV study, n = 6 and intragastric study, n = 6) and a manual group (IV study, n = 6 and oral study, n = 6). A series of blood samples from carotid artery were taken at specified times and analyzed using a validated LC-MS/MS method. Various PK parameters like area under curve (AUCinf), maximum concentration, time to reach maximum concentration, terminal half life, distribution volume at the steady state, and total clearance were calculated and the two study groups were compared with respect to these parameters. Results: Significant differences in PK parameters were observed between the manual group and the ADI/ABS group and respective bioavailability were measured (46.82 ± 19.45% and 61.54 ± 21.23%, respectively) which is 1.31-fold difference (P = 0.0051, P<0.05). Conclusion: The described ADI/ABS method was found to be a useful drug development tool for accelerating the pace of preclinical in vivo studies and for obtaining reliable and accurate PK parameters even from single animals as it minimized interanimal and physiological variations