244 research outputs found
Dermatological Side Effects of Sildenafil among a group of Iraqi Males
Background: Sildenafil is a drug that is used to treat erectile dysfunctions, it acts by inhibiting CGMP specific phosphodiesterase type 5, an enzyme that regulates blood flow in the penis. The most common adverse effects of sildenafil are headache, dyspepsia, nasal congestion and impaired vision which includes photophobia and blurred vision. Many dermatological side effects are present like flushing, urticaria, sweating and many others.
Patients and Methods: Fifty six males were included in this study, with ages between 37 – 60 years and a mean age of 50.1 ± 7.1years. The study was conducted from November 2004 till May 2009 in the Department of Dermatology of Al-Kadhymia Teaching Hospital in Baghdad; all patients experienced dermatological side effects every time they use the drug. Full history and full examination including dermatological examination were done for all patients.
Results: The commonest dermatological side effect was flushing of the face which was seen in 44 (78.6%) patients followed by hyperhydrosis which was seen in 14 (25%) patients then urticaria which was seen in 12 (21.4%) patients. It is seemed that side effects were more with 100mg dose than with 50mg dose (78 side effect against 22 one) and this result was statistically significant.
Conclusion: Dermatological side effects of sildenafil are fairly common and dermatologist must be aware of these side effects especially when he searches for the cause of angioedema, urticaria, pruritis as well as erythroderma
The value of repeated lumbar puncture to test for xanthochromia, in patients with clinical suspicion of subarachnoid haemorrhage, with CT-negative and initial traumatic tap.
OBJECTIVES: For the diagnosis of subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH), the presence of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) xanthochromia is still considered the gold standard for patients with a thunderclap headache, in the absence of blood on brain CT scan. However, a traumatic lumbar puncture (LP) typically results in high concentrations of oxyhaemoglobin in CSF, impairing the detection of xanthochromia and preventing the reliable exclusion of SAH. In this context, the value of a repeat lumbar puncture has not yet been described. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective case series of suspected SAH patients, with a negative CT scan and initial traumatic LP, managed with a repeat LP to assess for CSF xanthochromia. Clinical notes, laboratory and imaging results were reviewed. RESULTS: Between August 2011 and January 2020, 31 patients with suspected SAH were referred to our neurosurgical unit following negative CT and traumatic LP. A repeat LP was performed in 7 of the 31 patients, 2.4 days (±0.79 SD) after the first traumatic LP. CSF spectrophotometry analysis from repeated LP in all 7 patients was negative for xanthochromia. No adverse clinical events were recorded on average 18 months following discharge. CONCLUSION: A repeat LP performed following a traumatic tap can still yield xanthochromia-negative CSF, thereby, excluding SAH, avoiding unnecessary invasive angiography and overall promoting the safer management of these patients
On the equivalence of the Langevin and auxiliary field quantization methods for absorbing dielectrics
Recently two methods have been developed for the quantization of the
electromagnetic field in general dispersing and absorbing linear dielectrics.
The first is based upon the introduction of a quantum Langevin current in
Maxwell's equations [T. Gruner and D.-G. Welsch, Phys. Rev. A 53, 1818 (1996);
Ho Trung Dung, L. Kn\"{o}ll, and D.-G. Welsch, Phys. Rev. A 57, 3931 (1998); S.
Scheel, L. Kn\"{o}ll, and D.-G. Welsch, Phys. Rev. A 58, 700 (1998)], whereas
the second makes use of a set of auxiliary fields, followed by a canonical
quantization procedure [A. Tip, Phys. Rev. A 57, 4818 (1998)]. We show that
both approaches are equivalent.Comment: 7 pages, RevTeX, no figure
Quantum state transformation by dispersive and absorbing four-port devices
The recently derived input-output relations for the radiation field at a
dispersive and absorbing four-port device [T. Gruner and D.-G. Welsch, Phys.
Rev. A 54, 1661 (1996)] are used to derive the unitary transformation that
relates the output quantum state to the input quantum state, including
radiation and matter and without placing frequency restrictions. It is shown
that for each frequency the transformation can be regarded as a well-behaved
SU(4) group transformation that can be decomposed into a product of U(2) and
SU(2) group transformations. Each of them may be thought of as being realized
by a particular lossless four-port device. If for narrow-bandwidth radiation
far from the medium resonances the absorption matrix of the four-port device
can be disregarded, the well-known SU(2) group transformation for a lossless
device is recognized. Explicit formulas for the transformation of Fock-states
and coherent states are given.Comment: 24 pages, RevTe
Interference in dielectrics and pseudo-measurements
Inserting a lossy dielectric into one arm of an interference experiment acts
in many ways like a measurement. If two entangled photons are passed through
the interferometer, a certain amount of information is gained about which path
they took, and the interference pattern in a coincidence count measurement is
suppressed. However, by inserting a second dielectric into the other arm of the
interferometer, one can restore the interference pattern. Two of these
pseudo-measurements can thus cancel each other out. This is somewhat analogous
to the proposed quantum eraser experiments.Comment: 7 pages RevTeX 3.0 + 2 figures (postscript). Submitted to Phys. Rev.
Intraparenchymal intracranial pressure monitoring for hydrocephalus and cerebrospinal fluid disorders
Background: Elective intraparenchymal intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring is useful for the diagnosis and treatment of hydrocephalus and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) disorders. This retrospective study analyzes median ICP and pulse amplitude (PA) recordings in neurosurgically naïve patients undergoing elective ICP monitoring for suspected CSF disorders. /
Methods: Retrospective review of prospectively collated database of neurosurgically naïve patients undergoing elective ICP monitoring for suspected hydrocephalus and CSF disorders. Following extraction of the median ICP and PA values (separated into all, day and night time recordings), principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to identify the principal factors determining the spread of the data. Exploratory comparisons and correlations of ICP and PA values were explored, including by post hoc diagnostic groupings and age. /
Results: A total of 198 patients were identified in six distinct diagnostic groups (n = 21–47 in each).
The PCA suggested that there were two main factors accounting for the spread in the data, with 61.4% of the variance determined largely by the PA and 33.0% by the ICP recordings.
Exploratory comparisons of PA and ICP between the diagnostic groups showed significant differences between the groups. Specifically, significant differences were observed in PA between a group managed conservatively and the Chiari/syrinx, IIH, and NPH/LOVA groups and in the ICP between the conservatively managed group and high-pressure, IIH, and low-pressure groups. Correlations between ICP and PA revealed some interesting trends in the different diagnostic groups and correlations between ICP, PA, and age revealed a decreasing ICP and increasing PA with age. /
Conclusions: This study provides insights into hydrodynamic disturbances in different diagnostic groups of patients with CSF hydrodynamic disorders. It highlights the utility of analyzing both median PA and ICP recordings, stratified into day and night time recordings
Entanglement transformation at absorbing and amplifying four-port devices
Dielectric four-port devices play an important role in optical quantum
information processing. Since for causality reasons the permittivity is a
complex function of frequency, dielectrics are typical examples of noisy
quantum channels, which cannot preserve quantum coherence. To study the effects
of quantum decoherence, we start from the quantized electromagnetic field in an
arbitrary Kramers--Kronig dielectric of given complex permittivity and
construct the transformation relating the output quantum state to the input
quantum state, without placing restrictions on the frequency. We apply the
formalism to some typical examples in quantum communication. In particular we
show that for entangled qubits the Bell-basis states are more
robust against decoherence than the states .Comment: 12 pages, revtex, 10 eps figures, minor corrections in Appendi
Electromagnetic-field quantization and spontaneous decay in left-handed media
We present a quantization scheme for the electromagnetic field interacting
with atomic systems in the presence of dispersing and absorbing
magnetodielectric media, including left-handed material having negative real
part of the refractive index. The theory is applied to the spontaneous decay of
a two-level atom at the center of a spherical free-space cavity surrounded by
magnetodielectric matter of overlapping band-gap zones. Results for both big
and small cavities are presented, and the problem of local-field corrections
within the real-cavity model is addressed.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, RevTe
Pseudoaneurysm of the left ventricle following apical approach TAVI
Symptomatic severe aortic stenosis carries a two year survival of only 50%. However many patients are unsuitable for conventional aortic valve replacement as they are considered too high risk due to significant co-morbidities. Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) offers a viable alternative for this high risk patient group, either by the femoral or apical route. This article reports a case of a pseudoaneurysm of the left ventricle following an apical approach TAVI in an elderly lady with severe aortic stenosis. To our knowledge pseduoaneuryms of the left ventricle have been reported infrequently in the literature and has yet to be established as a recognised complication of TAVI
Spontaneous emission of an atom in front of a mirror
Motivated by a recent experiment [J. Eschner {\it et al.}, Nature {\bf 413},
495 (2001)], we now present a theoretical study on the fluorescence of an atom
in front of a mirror. On the assumption that the presence of the distant mirror
and a lens imposes boundary conditions on the electric field in a plane close
to the atom, we derive the intensities of the emitted light as a function of an
effective atom-mirror distance. The results obtained are in good agreement with
the experimental findings.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, revised version, references adde
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