Late-onset sick sinus syndrome after carbon monoxide poisoning

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a known, potent poisonous gas that causes hypoxaemia because of its high affinity for haemoglobin. It also induces inflammatory responses that cause tissue injury, particularly to the nervous and cardiovascular systems. Here we present a case of late-onset sick sinus syndrome (SSS) after CO poisoning. Arrhythmia during the acute phase has been recorded in the literature, but to the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of late-onset SSS. Late-onset neuropathy after CO poisoning is well known, and it seems that a similar mechanism develops in cardiac conduction after CO poisoning. This report highlights the importance of follow-up for arrhythmia after CO poisoning

Bone Histomorphometry of Femoral Head Cancellous Bone in Patients Who Underwent Total Hip Arthroplasties due to Destructive Hip in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) affects the hip joints. The microarchitecture of the cancellous bone in RA-affected hip joints has been unclear. Here we investigated the bone metabolism changes in the subcapital cancellous bone of destructive hips of RA patients (n=26 patients; 28 hip joints) which were classified by Larsen grade on X-ray into the groups: destructive hip (Des) (Larsen grade IV, n=18) and neck fracture (Fx) (Larsen grade 0 or 1, n=10). The femoral heads of the Des-group showed significantly higher trabecular thickness versus those of the Fx-group (179±30.8 vs. 151±23.5 μm, p=0.02). The Des-group had significantly higher osteoid volume/tissue volume (OV/TV) and osteoid volume/bone volume (OV/BV) ratios than the Fx-group (OV/TV: 0.72±0.70% vs. 0.27±0.32%, p=0.028; OV/BV: 2.96±2.85% vs. 1.24±1.31%, p=0.039). The osteoblast and osteoclast surface areas of the Des-group were remarkably higher than those of the Fx-group (9.80±10.9 vs. 0.15±0.15%, p=0.0005; 0.34±0.48 vs. 0.06±0.06%, p=0.0285, respectively). The T-scores of hip (femoral neck) bone mineral density (BMD) of the Fx-group were significantly lower versus those of the Des-group (−3.1±0.76 vs. −1.6±1.17, p<0.01). Increased osteoid and resorption parameters and higher femoral neck BMD demonstrate a high bone-turnover state in response to destructive changes in the hips of RA patients

Combined Use of a Solid-Phase Hexapeptide Ligand Library with Liquid Chromatography and Two-Dimensional Difference Gel Electrophoresis for Intact Plasma Proteomics

The intact plasma proteome is of great interest in biomarker studies because intact proteins reflect posttranslational protein processing such as phosphorylation that may correspond to disease status. We examined the utility of a solid-phase hexapeptide ligand library in combination with conventional plasma proteomics modalities for comprehensive profiling of intact plasma proteins. Plasma proteins were sequentially fractionated using depletion columns for albumin and immunoglobulin, and separated using an anion-exchange column. Proteins in each fraction were treated with a solid-phase hexapeptide ligand library and compared to those without treatment. Two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis demonstrated an increased number of protein spots in the treated samples. Mass spectrometric studies of these protein spots with unique intensity in the treated samples resulted in the identification of high- and medium-abundance proteins. Our results demonstrated the possible utility of a solid-phase hexapeptide ligand library to reveal greater number of intact plasma proteins. The characteristics of proteins with unique affinity to the library remain to be clarified by more extensive mass spectrometric protein identification, and optimized protocols should be established for large-scale plasma biomarker studies

Multi-layered flyer accelerated by laser induced shock waves

Copyright 2000 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. The following article appeared in Physics of Plasmas, 7(2), 676-680, 2000 and may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.87385

Spin Driven Jahn-Teller Distortion in a Pyrochlore system

The ground-state properties of the spin-1 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on the corner-sharing tetrahedra, pyrochlore lattice, is investigated. By breaking up each spin into a pair of 1/2-spins, the problem is reduced to the equivalent one of the spin-1/2 tetrahedral network in analogy with the valence bond solid state in one dimension. The twofold degeneracy of the spin-singlets of a tetrahedron is lifted by a Jahn-Teller mechanism, leading to a cubic to tetragonal structural transition. It is proposed that the present mechanism is responsible for the phase transition observed in the spin-1 spinel compounds ZnV$_2$O$_4$ and MgV$_2$O$_4$.Comment: 4 pages, 3 eps figures, REVTeX, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Crossover Phenomena in the One-Dimensional SU(4) Spin-Orbit Model under Magnetic Fields

We study the one-dimensional SU(4) exchange model under magnetic fields, which is the simplest effective Hamiltonian in order to investigate the quantum fluctuations concerned with the orbital degrees of freedom in coupled spin-orbit systems. The Bethe ansatz approaches and numerical calculations using the density matrix renormalization group method are employed. The main concern of the paper is how the system changes from the SU(4) to the SU(2) symmetric limit as the magnetic field is increased. For this model the conformal field theory predicts an usual behavior: there is a jump of the critical exponents just before the SU(2) limit. For a finite-size system, however, the orbital-orbital correlation functions approach continuously to the SU(2) limit after interesting crossover phenomena. The crossover takes place in the magnetization range of 1/3 $\sim$ 1/2 for the system with 72 sites studied in this paper.Comment: 8 pages, 6 Postscript figures, REVTeX, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Evidence for Ongoing Modeling-Based Bone Formation in Human Femoral Head Trabeculae via Forming Minimodeling Structures: A Study in Patients with Fractures and Arthritis.

Bone modeling is a biological process of bone formation that adapts bone size and shape to mechanical loads, especially during childhood and adolescence. Bone modeling in cortical bone can be easily detected using sequential radiographic images, while its assessment in trabecular bone is challenging. Here, we performed histomorphometric analysis in 21 bone specimens from biopsies collected during hip arthroplasty, and we proposed the criteria for histologically identifying an active modeling-based bone formation, which we call a "forming minimodeling structure" (FMiS). Evidence of FMiSs was found in 9 of 20 specimens (45%). In histomorphometric analysis, bone volume was significant higher in specimens displaying FMiSs compared with the specimens without these structures (BV/TV, 31.7 ± 10.2 vs. 23.1 ± 3.9%; p < 0.05). Osteoid parameters were raised in FMiS-containing bone specimens (OV/BV, 2.1 ± 1.6 vs. 0.6 ± 0.3%; p < 0.001, OS/BS, 23.6 ± 15.5 vs. 7.6 ± 4.2%; p < 0.001, and O.Th, 7.4 µm ± 2.0 vs. 5.2 ± 1.0; p < 0.05). Our results showed that the modeling-based bone formation on trabecular bone surfaces occurs even during adulthood. As FMiSs can represent histological evidence of modeling-based bone formation, understanding of this physiology in relation to bone homeostasis is crucial

Atrial Fibrillation Detection and Ischemic Stroke Recurrence in Cryptogenic Stroke: A Retrospective, Multicenter, Observational Study

Todo K., Okazaki S., Doijiri R., et al. Atrial Fibrillation Detection and Ischemic Stroke Recurrence in Cryptogenic Stroke: A Retrospective, Multicenter, Observational Study. Journal of the American Heart Association 13, e031508 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.123.031508.BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is known to be a strong risk factor for stroke. However, the risk of stroke recurrence in patients with cryptogenic stroke with AF detected after stroke by an insertable cardiac monitor (ICM) is not well known. We sought to evaluate the risk of ischemic stroke recurrence in patients with cryptogenic stroke with and without ICM-detected AF. METHODS AND RESULTS: We retrospectively reviewed patients with cryptogenic stroke who underwent ICM implantation at 8 stroke centers in Japan. Cox regression models were developed using landmark analysis and time-dependent analysis. We set the target sample size at 300 patients based on our estimate of the annualized incidence of ischemic stroke recurrence to be 3% in patients without AF detection and 9% in patients with AF detection. Of the 370 patients, 121 were found to have AF, and 110 received anticoagulation therapy after AF detection. The incidence of ischemic stroke recurrence was 4.0% in 249 patients without AF detection and 5.8% in 121 patients with AF detection (P=0.45). In a landmark analysis, the risk of ischemic stroke recurrence was not higher in patients with AF detected ≤90 days than in those without (hazard ratio, 1.47 [95% CI, 0.41–5.28]). In a time-dependent analysis, the risk of ischemic stroke recurrence did not increase after AF detection (hazard ratio, 1.77 [95% CI, 0.70–4.47]). CONCLUSIONS: The risk of ischemic stroke recurrence in patients with cryptogenic stroke with ICM-detected AF, 90% of whom were subsequently anticoagulated, was not higher than in those without ICM-detected AF

Unhealthy food intake restriction awareness and mortality

Background: Improving diets requires an awareness of the need to limit foods for which excessive consumption is a health problem. Since there are limited reports on the link between this awareness and mortality risk, we examined the association between awareness of limiting food intake (energy, fat, and sweets) and all-cause mortality in a Japanese cohort study. Methods: Participants comprised 58,772 residents (27,294 men; 31,478 women) aged 35–69 years who completed baseline surveys of the Japan Multi-Institutional Collaborative Cohort Study from 2004 to 2014. Hazard ratios (HRs) for all-cause mortality and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated by sex using a Cox proportional hazard model, with adjustment for related factors. Mediation analysis with fat intake as a mediator was also conducted. Results: The mean follow-up period was 11 years and 2,516 people died. Estimated energy and fat intakes according to the Food Frequency Questionnaire were lower in those with awareness of limiting food intake than in those without this awareness. Women with awareness of limiting fat intake showed a significant decrease in mortality risk (HR=0.73; 95% CI, 0.55 to 0.94). Mediation analysis revealed that this association was due to the direct effect of the awareness of limiting fat intake and that the total effect was not mediated by actual fat intake. Awareness of limiting energy or sweets intake was not related to mortality risk reduction. Conclusion: Awareness of limiting food intake had a limited effect on reducing all-cause mortality risk

Coincidence analysis to search for inspiraling compact binaries using TAMA300 and LISM data

Japanese laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors, TAMA300 and LISM, performed a coincident observation during 2001. We perform a coincidence analysis to search for inspiraling compact binaries. The length of data used for the coincidence analysis is 275 hours when both TAMA300 and LISM detectors are operated simultaneously. TAMA300 and LISM data are analyzed by matched filtering, and candidates for gravitational wave events are obtained. If there is a true gravitational wave signal, it should appear in both data of detectors with consistent waveforms characterized by masses of stars, amplitude of the signal, the coalescence time and so on. We introduce a set of coincidence conditions of the parameters, and search for coincident events. This procedure reduces the number of fake events considerably, by a factor $\sim 10^{-4}$ compared with the number of fake events in single detector analysis. We find that the number of events after imposing the coincidence conditions is consistent with the number of accidental coincidences produced purely by noise. We thus find no evidence of gravitational wave signals. We obtain an upper limit of 0.046 /hours (CL $= 90$) to the Galactic event rate within 1kpc from the Earth. The method used in this paper can be applied straightforwardly to the case of coincidence observations with more than two detectors with arbitrary arm directions.Comment: 28 pages, 17 figures, Replaced with the version to be published in Physical Review