The Journal of surgical research
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Comparative Study
Comparison of different thoracic trauma scoring systems in regards to prediction of post-traumatic complications and outcome in blunt chest trauma.
As accurate assessment of thoracic injury severity in the early phase after trauma is difficult, we compared different thoracic trauma scores regarding their predictive ability for the development of post-traumatic complications and mortality. ⋯ Thoracic trauma scores combining anatomical and physiologic parameters like the TTS seem to be most suitable for severity assessment and prediction of outcome in multiple trauma patients with concomitant blunt chest trauma.
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Comparative Study
Effects of hyperglycemia and continuous intravenous insulin on outcomes of surgical patients.
Hyperglycemia in critically ill patients has been associated with increased morbidity and mortality. It is unclear to what degree hyperglycemia should be regulated in a mixed surgical population. ⋯ Increased mortality was associated with surgical patients in the uncontrolled blood glucose group compared with patients who were well controlled with insulin therapy. These results are comparable to previous studies and indicate that surgical patients are a population who may benefit from tighter glycemic control. Further investigations through prospective randomized studies are needed to fully evaluate the effects of hyperglycemia in a diverse surgical population as well as specific surgical subspecialties.
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Resveratrol has been shown to have protective effects for patients in shock-like states, and Akt (protein kinase B) is known to play a role in pro-inflammatory events in response to injury. The aim of this study is to determine whether resveratrol provides cardioprotection mediated via an Akt-dependent pathway in trauma-hemorrhaged animals. ⋯ Resveratrol attenuates cardiac injury following trauma-hemorrhage, which is, at least in part, due to its anti-inflammatory effects via Akt-dependent pathways.
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The present study aimed to investigate the effect of curcumin on sepsis-induced acute lung injury (ALI) in rats, and explore its possible mechanisms. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into the following five experimental groups (n = 20 per group): animals undergoing a sham cecal ligature puncture (CLP) (sham group); animals undergoing CLP (control group); or animals undergoing CLP and treated with vehicle (vehicle group), curcumin at 50 mg/kg (low-dose curcumin [L-Cur] group), or curcumin at 200 mg/kg (high-dose curcumin [H-Cur] group). At 6, 12, 24 h after CLP, blood, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and lung tissue were collected. ⋯ Importantly, curcumin improved the survival rate of rats by 40%-50% with CLP-induced ALI. Taken together, these results demonstrate the protective effects of curcumin against the CLP-induced ALI. This effect can be attributed to curcumin ability to counteract the inflammatory cells infiltration and, hence, ROS generation and regulate cytokine effects.
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Comparative Study
Nonlinear mechanical behavior of the human common, external, and internal carotid arteries in vivo.
The mechanical environment and properties of the carotid artery play an important role in the formation and progression of atherosclerosis in the carotid bifurcation. The purpose of this work was to measure and compare the range and variation of circumferential stress and tangent elastic moduli in the human common (CCA), external (ECA), and internal (ICA) carotid arteries over the cardiac cycle in vivo. ⋯ The in vivo mechanical behavior of the three segments of the carotid bifurcation was qualitatively similar, but quantitatively different. All three arteries--CCA, ECA and ICA--exhibited nonlinear variations of circumferential stress and tangent elastic moduli within the normal pressure range. The variability in the properties of the three segments of the carotid bifurcation indicates a need for development of carotid models that match the in vivo properties of the carotid segments. Finally, the observed nonlinear behavior of the artery points to the need for future vascular mechanical studies to evaluate the mechanical factors of the arterial wall over the entire cardiac cycle.