Anesthesiology
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Endoplasmic reticulum stress plays a crucial role in the pathogenesis of neuroinflammation and chronic pain. This study hypothesized that PRKR-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase (PERK) and inositol-requiring enzyme type 1 (IRE1) regulate lipocalin-2 (LCN2) and Nod-like receptor family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) expression in astrocytes, thereby contributing to morphine tolerance and hyperalgesia. ⋯ Astrocyte endoplasmic reticulum stress sensors PERK and IRE1 facilitated morphine tolerance and hyperalgesia through upregulation of LCN2 and NLRP3 in the spinal cord.
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Extracorporeal Circulation in Neonatal Respiratory Failure: A Prospective Randomized Study. By RH Bartlett, DW Roloff, RG Cornell, AF Andrews, PW Dillon, JB Zwischenberger. Pediatrics 1985; 76:479-87. ⋯ This is the classic article reviewed in this publication. This was the first use of a randomized, adaptive design trial to minimize the potential ethical dilemma inherent to clinical trials in which the endpoint is death. Other randomized trials followed, and ECMO is now standard practice for severe respiratory and cardiac failure in all age groups.
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Recent advances in neural networks have given rise to generative artificial intelligence, systems able to produce fluent responses to natural questions or attractive and even photorealistic images from text prompts. These systems were developed through new network architectures that permit massive computational resources to be applied efficiently to enormous data sets. ⋯ Second, this article examines the transformer architecture in the interpretation and generation of natural language, as it will be useful in producing automated summarization of medical records or performing initial patient screening. The author also applies the GPT-3.5 algorithm to example questions from the American Board of Anesthesiologists Basic Examination and find that, under surprisingly reasonable conditions, it correctly answers more than half the questions.
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How general anesthetics work remains a topic of ongoing study. A parallel field of research has sought to identify methods to reverse general anesthesia. Reversal agents could shorten patients' recovery time and potentially reduce the risk of postoperative complications. ⋯ Furthermore, the effects of reversal agents have been found to be inconsistent across different general anesthetics, revealing differences in mechanisms among these drugs. The presynapse and glia probably also contribute to general anesthesia recovery alongside postsynaptic receptors. The next stage in the search for reversal agents will have to consider alternate mechanisms encompassing the tripartite synapse.