Anesthesia and analgesia
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Feb 2020
A Novel 3-Dimensional Approach for the Echocardiographic Evaluation of Mitral Valve Area After Repair for Degenerative Disease.
Currently available 2-dimensional (2D) echocardiographic methods for accurately assessing the mitral valve orifice area (MVA) after mitral valve repair (MVr) are limited due to its complex 3-dimensional (3D) geometry. We compared repaired MVAs obtained with commonly used 2D and 3D echocardiographic methods to a 3D orifice area (3DOA), which is a novel echocardiographic measurement and independent of geometric assumptions. ⋯ Post-MVr MVAs obtained using the novel 3DOA method were significantly smaller than those obtained by conventional echocardiographic methods and may be consistent with a higher incidence of MVA reduction when compared to 2D techniques. Further studies are still needed to establish the clinical significance of 3D echocardiographic techniques used to measure MVA after MVr.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Feb 2020
Comparative StudyCalculation of Confidence Intervals for Differences in Medians Between Groups and Comparison of Methods.
Continuous data that are not normally distributed are typically presented in terms of median and interquartile range (IQR) for each group. High-quality anesthesia journals often require that confidence intervals are calculated and presented for all estimated associations of interest reported within a manuscript submission, and therefore, methods for calculating confidence intervals for differences in medians are vital. ⋯ We discuss specific recommendations regarding the methods according to the objectives of the study as well as the distribution of the data as it pertains to the assumptions of the respective methods. Quantile regression allows for covariate adjustment, which may be an advantage in situations where differences in medians between groups may be due to confounding.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Feb 2020
Exogenous GM1 Ganglioside Attenuates Ketamine-Induced Neurocognitive Impairment in the Developing Rat Brain.
A prolonged exposure to ketamine triggers significant neurodegeneration and long-term neurocognitive deficits in the developing brain. Monosialotetrahexosylganglioside (GM1) can limit the neuronal damage from necrosis and apoptosis in neurodegenerative conditions. We aimed to assess whether GM1 can prevent ketamine-induced developmental neurotoxicity. ⋯ Our data suggest that the exogenous GM1 acts on BDNF signaling pathway to ameliorate the cognitive impairment and hippocampal apoptosis induced by ketamine in young rats. Our study may indicate a potential use of GM1 in preventing the cognitive deficits induced by ketamine in the young per se.