Articles: function.
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J Clin Monit Comput · Feb 2016
Transient stop-flow arm arterial-venous equilibrium pressure measurement: determination of precision of the technique.
Transient stop-flow arm arterial-venous equilibrium pressure (Pmsf-arm) is a validated technique for measuring the mean systemic filling pressure (Pmsf). Pmsf is a functional measure of the effective intravascular volume status. This study aims to assess the precision of the Pmsf-arm measurement. ⋯ Averaging two, three and four measurements the CE improves to 4 % (±1 %), 3 % (±1 %) and 3 % (±1 %) respectively, and the LSC was reduced to 10 % (±4 %), 8 % (±3 %) and 7 % (±3 %) respectively. One measurement of Pmsf-arm can reliably detect changes on Pmsf-arm of 14 %. The precision of Pmsf-arm technique improves when averaging two or three measurements.
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A subset of patients with hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) develops pulmonary hypertension (PH) by mechanisms including pulmonary arterial hypertension, high flow, and elevated pulmonary arterial wedge pressure (PAWP). We aimed to describe echocardiographic and hemodynamic characteristics of patients with coexisting HHT and PH. ⋯ PH in patients with HHT occurs by different mechanisms, and there is a trend toward worse survival in patients who develop PH despite the mechanism. The equal predilection toward all subtypes of PH illustrates the necessity of RHC to clarify the hemodynamics.
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Cigarette smoking is a major environmental contributor to COPD, but understanding its epigenetic regulation of oxidative genes involved in the pathogenesis of COPD remains elusive. ⋯ Cigarette smoke-induced hypermethylation of the GCLC promoter is related to the initiation and progression of COPD. Our finding may provide a new strategy for COPD intervention by developing demethylation agents targeting GCLC hypermethylation.
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Journal of anesthesia · Feb 2016
Changes in presepsin concentrations in surgical patients with end-stage kidney disease undergoing living kidney transplantation: a pilot study.
Presepsin is a useful marker for differentiating sepsis from non-infection-related systemic inflammatory response syndrome. There are data describing elevated presepsin concentrations in patients with kidney dysfunction even in the absence of sepsis, but corresponding data for patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) undergoing living kidney transplantation (LKT) are lacking. We investigated the changes in presepsin concentrations in this patient group in order to elucidate any relationship with renal function. ⋯ Presepsin concentrations consistently decreased after LKT. Moreover, presepsin concentration was strongly correlated with serum creatinine (r (2) = 0.72, n = 24, p < 0.001). These data suggest that the kidney clearly plays an important role in the metabolism and excretion of presepsin.