Plos One
-
Cardiac dysfunction in patients with early cirrhosis is debated. We investigated potential cardiac dysfunction by assessing left ventricular systolic performance during a dobutamine stress test in patients with early cirrhosis. ⋯ In patients with early cirrhosis the chronotropoic and inotropic response to pharmacological stress induced by dobutamine is normal. With progression of the disease, the mass of the heart increases along with increase in cardiac volumes.
-
Comparative Study
Comparison of static and microfluidic protease assays using modified bioluminescence resonance energy transfer chemistry.
Fluorescence and bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (F/BRET) are two forms of Förster resonance energy transfer, which can be used for optical transduction of biosensors. BRET has several advantages over fluorescence-based technologies because it does not require an external light source. There would be benefits in combining BRET transduction with microfluidics but the low luminance of BRET has made this challenging until now. ⋯ These data demonstrate that BRET based microfluidic assays are feasible and that BRET(H) provides a useful test bed for optimising BRET-based microfluidics. This approach may be convenient for a wide range of applications requiring sensitive detection and/or quantification of chemical or biological analytes.
-
Randomized Controlled Trial
Effect of topical tranexamic acid on bleeding and quality of surgical field during functional endoscopic sinus surgery in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis: a triple blind randomized clinical trial.
The effect of tranexamic acid (TXA) on bleeding and improvement of surgical field during functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS) is not clear yet. This study was conducted to answer this question. ⋯ Topical TXA can efficiently reduce bleeding and improve the surgical field in FESS in patients with rhinosinusitis. Based on these findings, topical TXA may be a useful method for providing a suitable surgical field during the first 30 minutes after use.
-
Excessive fibroproliferation is a central hallmark of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a chronic, progressive disorder that results in impaired gas exchange and respiratory failure. Fibroblasts are the key effector cells in IPF, and aberrant expression of multiple genes contributes to their excessive fibroproliferative phenotype. DNA methylation changes are critical to the development of many diseases, but the DNA methylome of IPF fibroblasts has never been characterized. ⋯ DNA methylation differences may thus help to explain a proportion of the differences in gene expression previously observed in studies of IPF fibroblasts. Moreover, significant variability in DNA methylation was observed among individual IPF cell lines, suggesting that differences in DNA methylation may contribute to fibroblast heterogeneity among patients with IPF. These results demonstrate that IPF fibroblasts exhibit global differences in DNA methylation that may contribute to the excessive fibroproliferation associated with this disease.
-
Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) continues to have a high mortality. Currently, there are no biomarkers that provide reliable prognostic information to guide clinical management or stratify risk among clinical trial participants. The objective of this study was to probe the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) proteome to identify proteins that differentiate survivors from non-survivors of ARDS. ⋯ Proteins more abundant in early-phase non-survivors participate in carbohydrate catabolism and collagen synthesis, with no activation of compensatory responses. The compensatory immune activation and ion homeostatic response seen in early-phase survivors transitioned to cell migration and actin filament based processes in late-phase survivors, revealing dynamic changes in the BALF proteome as the lung heals. Early phase proteins differentiating survivors from non-survivors are candidate biomarkers for predicting survival in ARDS.