Articles: function.
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The course of denim sandblasting silicosis is unknown. We aimed to reevaluate former sandblasters studied in 2007 for incident silicosis, radiographic progression, pulmonary function loss, and mortality and to examine any associations between these outcomes and previously demonstrated risk factors for silicosis. ⋯ This 4-year follow-up suggests that almost all former denim sandblasters may develop silicosis, despite short exposures and latency.
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Acta Anaesthesiol Scand · Sep 2015
Observational StudyAcute alcohol intoxication and bispectral index monitoring.
Bispectral index (BIS) monitoring is commonly used to decrease the risk of awareness during anaesthesia. We aimed to determine the relationship between blood alcohol concentration and brain function (as measured by BIS) in healthy adults. ⋯ In healthy young adults, we found a moderate correlation between venous blood alcohol concentration and BIS. This suggests that acute alcohol consumption can decrease BIS. This information may be relevant when providing anaesthesia to intoxicated patients who require urgent or time-critical surgery, although certain limitations of this study should be kept in mind.
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Almost every disorder of the CNS is said to have an inflammatory component, but the precise nature of inflammation in the CNS is often imprecisely defined, and the role of CNS-resident cells is uncertain compared with that of cells that invade the tissue from the systemic immune compartment. To understand inflammation in the CNS, the term must be better defined, and the response of tissue to disturbances in homoeostasis (eg, neurodegenerative processes) should be distinguished from disorders in which aberrant immune responses lead to CNS dysfunction and tissue destruction (eg, autoimmunity). Whether the inflammatory tissue response to injury is reparative or degenerative seems to be dependent on context and timing, as are the windows of opportunity for therapeutic intervention in inflammatory CNS diseases.
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Cystic fibrosis (CF) conductance transmembrane regulator functions as a chloride (Cl-) channel in multiple organs, including the lungs. More than 1,800 disease-associated mutations have been identified, which can be divided into six classes. ⋯ We report 6 months' prospective stability of lung function, improved BMI, reduced pulmonary exacerbations, and reduction in sweat chloride level in a patient with severe CF and the class IV R117H mutation. High-resolution CT scan also improved, thus highlighting the potential usefulness of ivacaftor in patients with severe CF due to class IV mutations.