Isr Med Assoc J
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Unicompartmental knee replacement has become a surgical alternative for treating isolated medial or lateral osteoarthritis of the knee or avascular necrosis of the femoral condyls. ⋯ Despite the higher revision rate to TKR in this study, our findings confirm the short-term results reported in other studies of the Oxford medial unicompartmental knee and our early failure rate could be explained by a performance learning curve. This study confirms that this bone-preserving procedure should be considered in end-stage isolated unicompartmental osteoarthritis or avascular necrosis by surgeons who have the adequate training and experience.
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Acute kidney injury remains a common significant clinical problem. Yet there are scant data in Israel on the incidence of hospital-acquired AKI and on diagnosis validity. ⋯ Using AKI laboratory diagnosis as the gold standard revealed ICD-9 diagnosis to be 9.1% sensitive and 99.4% specific. Hospital-acquired AKI is a major contributor to prolonged length of stay and high mortality rates; therefore, interventions to reduce in-hospital disease incidence are required.
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Comparative Study
Use of the forced oscillation technique to detect bronchodilation in children: experience from the Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel.
The forced oscillation technique is a noninvasive and effort-independent technique that is well suited for lung function measurement in young children. FOT employs small-amplitude pressure oscillations superimposed on normal breathing. Therefore, it has the advantage over conventional lung function techniques in that it does not require patient cooperation for conducting respiratory maneuvers. ⋯ The FOT is a simple, non-invasive technique that does not require subject cooperation and thus can be utilized for measuring lung function in children as young as 2 years old. Furthermore, the FOT was shown to reliably measure response to bronchodilator therapy.
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The TANTALUS System (MetaCure Limited) is a minimally invasive implantable device for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. The system detects food intake by sensing gastric electrical variations and applies electrical stimulation to the gut synchronized to natural gastric activity. The system is commercially available in Europe and Israel and is in clinical trials in the United States. It has been tested in 132 patients worldwide to date. ⋯ The results suggest that the TANTALUS stimulation regime can improve glucose levels and induce moderate weight loss in obese T2DM patients.
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Ten years ago we published a review updating current knowledge on heart failure. We summarized that heart failure is a neuro-humoral and inflammatory syndrome, and that proinflammatory cytokines are involved in cardiac depression and in the complex syndrome of heart failure. ⋯ Now we know that there are several mechanisms involved in this syndrome, including inflammation, nitric oxide-dependent pathways, apoptosis, reactive oxygen species, and mitochondrial energy metabolism. This review will focus on the up-to-date mechanistic aspects of heart failure, including clinical trials that have contributed to our better understanding of this entity.