Endovascular treatment of iatrogenic central vein stenosis and occlusion in patients undergoing haemodialysis : a two-year follow-up

Objectives: The objective of our report was to present the results of two-year follow-up of endovascular treatment of central venous occlusive disease in haemodialysis patients. Material and methods: Eighty-one consecutive patients with central venous occlusive disease, were included into the study group. There were 81 lesions treated (42 stenosis and 39 occlusions). Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) or percutaneous transluminal angioplasty with stenting (PTS) was committed. There was no randomisation. Stent implantation was avoided in vessels with a foreign body inside (catheter or electrode). Diagnostic phlebographies were performed after 12 and 24 months or if symptoms recurred. The follow-up period lasted for 24 months. There were 26 (70%) patients with primary stenosis and 11 (29%) with occlusion in the group with PTA therapy and 13 (38%) and 21 (61%) in the group with PTS therapy. Procedure was successful in all cases of stenosis, unsuccessful in 10 cases of occlusions. Seventeen patients died during first year of observation, 9 during the second. Two patients were lost to follow up. No serious adverse events were observed. Results: Primary patency (PP) after 12 and 24 months was 50% and 26% after PTS, 33% and 21% after PTA respectively. Primary assisted patency (PAP) was 70% and 52% in PTS group while 86% and 92% in PTA group. Secondary patency (SP) 70% and 52% after PTS to 93% and 92% after PTA. Conclusions: Both methods are safe and mildly effective in the treatment of central veins in haemodialysis patients. Both techniques should be applicable in specific clinical settings according to patient status and operator experience

Chronic inhibition of endoplasmic reticulum stress and inflammation prevents ischaemia-induced vascular pathology in type II diabetic mice

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and inflammation are important mechanisms that underlie many of the serious consequences of type II diabetes. However, the role of ER stress and inflammation in impaired ischaemia-induced neovascularization in type II diabetes is unknown. We studied ischaemia-induced neovascularization in the hind-limb of 4-week-old db - /db- mice and their controls treated with or without the ER stress inhibitor (tauroursodeoxycholic acid, TUDCA, 150 mg/kg per day) and interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (anakinra, 0.5 microg/mouse per day) for 4 weeks. Blood pressure was similar in all groups of mice. Blood glucose, insulin levels, and body weight were reduced in db - /db- mice treated with TUDCA. Increased cholesterol and reduced adiponectin in db - /db- mice were restored by TUDCA and anakinra treatment. ER stress and inflammation in the ischaemic hind-limb in db - /db- mice were attenuated by TUDCA and anakinra treatment. Ischaemia-induced neovascularization and blood flow recovery were significantly reduced in db - /db- mice compared to control. Interestingly, neovascularization and blood flow recovery were restored in db - /db- mice treated with TUDCA or anakinra compared to non-treated db - /db- mice. TUDCA and anakinra enhanced eNOS-cGMP, VEGFR2, and reduced ERK1/2 MAP-kinase signalling, while endothelial progenitor cell number was similar in all groups of mice. Our findings demonstrate that the inhibition of ER stress and inflammation prevents impaired ischaemia-induced neovascularization in type II diabetic mice. Thus, ER stress and inflammation could be potential targets for a novel therapeutic approach to prevent impaired ischaemia-induced vascular pathology in type II diabetes

Analysis of a Large Sample of Neutrino-Induced Muons with the ArgoNeuT Detector

ArgoNeuT, or Argon Neutrino Test, is a 170 liter liquid argon time projection chamber designed to collect neutrino interactions from the NuMI beam at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. ArgoNeuT operated in the NuMI low-energy beam line directly upstream of the MINOS Near Detector from September 2009 to February 2010, during which thousands of neutrino and antineutrino events were collected. The MINOS Near Detector was used to measure muons downstream of ArgoNeuT. Though ArgoNeuT is primarily an R&D project, the data collected provide a unique opportunity to measure neutrino cross sections in the 0.1-10 GeV energy range. Fully reconstructing the muon from these interactions is imperative for these measurements. This paper focuses on the complete kinematic reconstruction of neutrino-induced through-going muons tracks. Analysis of this high statistics sample of minimum ionizing tracks demonstrates the reliability of the geometric and calorimetric reconstruction in the ArgoNeuT detector

The ArgoNeuT Detector in the NuMI Low-Energy beam line at Fermilab

The ArgoNeuT liquid argon time projection chamber has collected thousands of neutrino and antineutrino events during an extended run period in the NuMI beam-line at Fermilab. This paper focuses on the main aspects of the detector layout and related technical features, including the cryogenic equipment, time projection chamber, read-out electronics, and off-line data treatment. The detector commissioning phase, physics run, and first neutrino event displays are also reported. The characterization of the main working parameters of the detector during data-taking, the ionization electron drift velocity and lifetime in liquid argon, as obtained from through-going muon data complete the present report.Comment: 43 pages, 27 figures, 5 tables - update referenc

The Marker State Space (MSS) Method for Classifying Clinical Samples

The development of accurate clinical biomarkers has been challenging in part due to the diversity between patients and diseases. One approach to account for the diversity is to use multiple markers to classify patients, based on the concept that each individual marker contributes information from its respective subclass of patients. Here we present a new strategy for developing biomarker panels that accounts for completely distinct patient subclasses. Marker State Space (MSS) defines "marker states" based on all possible patterns of high and low values among a panel of markers. Each marker state is defined as either a case state or a control state, and a sample is classified as case or control based on the state it occupies. MSS was used to define multi-marker panels that were robust in cross validation and training-set/test-set analyses and that yielded similar classification accuracy to several other classification algorithms. A three-marker panel for discriminating pancreatic cancer patients from control subjects revealed subclasses of patients based on distinct marker states. MSS provides a straightforward approach for modeling highly divergent subclasses of patients, which may be adaptable for diverse applications. © 2013 Fallon et al