European journal of cardio-thoracic surgery : official journal of the European Association for Cardio-thoracic Surgery
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Eur J Cardiothorac Surg · Jun 2003
Comparative StudyPrognostic value of visceral pleura invasion in non-small cell lung cancer.
The purpose of this study was to clarify the prognostic significance of visceral pleura invasion in T2 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). ⋯ We were able to demonstrate that visceral pleura invasion was a factor of poor prognosis in T2 NSCLC. It was found to correlate with more extensive mediastinal lymph node involvement and a decreased survival rates. Therefore, the patients with visceral pleura invasion should be closely followed up especially.
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Eur J Cardiothorac Surg · Jun 2003
Comparative StudyAn evaluation of existing risk stratification models as a tool for comparison of surgical performances for coronary artery bypass grafting between institutions.
Risk stratification systems are used in cardiac surgery to estimate mortality risk for individual patients and to compare surgical performance between institutions or surgeons. This study investigates the suitability of six existing risk stratification systems for these purposes. ⋯ This study suggests that two of the scores may be useful in comparing institutions. None of the risk scores provide accurate risk estimates for individual patients in the two hospitals studied although EuroSCORE may have some utility for certain patients. All six systems perform moderately at ranking the patients and so may be useful for patient management. More results are needed from other institutions to confirm that the EuroSCORE and the simple Bayes model are suitable for institutional risk-adjusted comparisons.
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Eur J Cardiothorac Surg · Jun 2003
Thoracic firearm injuries in children: management and analysis of prognostic factors.
Thoracic firearm injuries (TFI) have become increasingly prevalent in children. Our purpose is to assess the injury pattern, Injury Severity Score (ISS), length of hospital stay (LOS), management and outcome of children with TFI with respect to the type of injury and to evaluate the value of ISS for predicting injury severity and the eventual need for thoracotomy, as well as the rate of morbidity and mortality. ⋯ The majority of TFI in children can be treated successfully by tube thoracostomy if there are no gross pulmonary lacerations and airway injuries. SGW and EW were commonly associated with higher ISS and LOS. The ISS was found to be an independent predictor of the need for thoracotomy, as well as for rates of morbidity and mortality.
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Eur J Cardiothorac Surg · Jun 2003
Comparative StudyDoes sodium nitroprusside reduce lung injury under cardiopulmonary bypass?
We hypothesized that direct pulmonary arterial infusion of sodium nitroprusside (SNP) would ameliorate lung injury under cardiopulmonary bypass. ⋯ The results represented in our study indicate that pulmonary arterial infusion of sodium nitroprusside during reperfusion can reduce lung injury under cardiopulmonary bypass.
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Eur J Cardiothorac Surg · Jun 2003
Cardioplegic arrest induces apoptosis signal-pathway in myocardial endothelial cells and cardiac myocytes.
Myocardial ischemia-reperfusion is associated with free radical-mediated injury and may be involved in cardiac apoptosis. The purpose of our study was to investigate (1) if cardioplegia-induced ischemia-reperfusion initiates cardiac apoptosis signal pathway, and (2) if this is mediated by free radicals. ⋯ Our data show that CA initiates apoptosis signal-pathway in myocardial endothelium and myocytes; however, this did not result in apoptotic cell death as we did not find PARP cleavage. Further, the data suggest that CA-induced apoptosis signal pathway activation is not mediated by free radicals as caspase-3 activation preceded both nitrotyrosine and 8-iso-prostaglandin-F(2)alpha formation.