Bratisl Med J
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This study presents an empirical evidence of benefit of narrative video clips in embedded virtual reality websites of hotels for relieving travel anxiety. Even though it was proven that virtual reality functions do provide some relief in travel anxiety, a stronger virtual reality website can be built when narrative video clips that show video clips with narration about important aspects of the hotel. We posit that these important aspects are 1. ⋯ Thus we created a video clip that showed and narrated about the escape route from the hotel room, another video clip that showed and narrated about surrounding neighborhood. We then conducted experiments with this enhanced virtual reality website of a hotel by having human subjects play with the website and fill out a questionnaire. The result confirms our hypothesis that there is a statistically significant relationship between the degree of travel anxiety and psychological relief caused by the use of embedded virtual reality functions with narrative video clips of a hotel website (Tab. 2, Fig. 3, Ref. 26).
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An objective of our work was to clarify variations in pudendal nerve formation, as well as their possible impact on the clinical picture. Bilateral pudendal nerve course and formation was studied on 20 adult cadavers. Anterior approach was used in 15 of them, both posterior and anterior approaches were used in five of them. ⋯ We observed its branching before entering the pudendal canal in 15 cases (75 %). It has divided in the pudendal canal in other cases. This description may be useful particularly for the pudendal nerve block and the nerve saving surgeries directed on the relevant region (Fig. 8, Ref. 24).
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Soluble TREM-1 (sTREM-1; Triggering receptor expressed on myelocytes) is a new inflammatory marker indicating the intensity of myeloid cells activation and the presence of infection caused by extracellular bacteria and mould. The aim of our work was to detect and compare the levels of sTREM-1 in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) in patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis (PS) and other ILD of non-infectious origin. The sTREM-1 levels were assessed by ELISA in 46 patients suffering from ILD, out of them 22 with PS. ⋯ Detection of sTREM-1 in BALF indirectly points to myeloid cells activation in the lungs and helps to complete the information about the number of myeloid cells commonly determined in BALF with additional information concerning the intensity of their activation. This is the first study that analyses BALF sTREM-1 levels in patients with PS (Tab. 8, Ref. 28). Text in PDF www.elis.sk.
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Biography Historical Article
John Heysham Gibbon and the 60th anniversary of the first successful heart-lung machine: brief notes about the development of cardiac surgery in Europe and Slovakia.
The development of the heart-lung machine and its first successful clinical application in 1953 was the culmination of Dr. Gibbon's lifetime research project. Despite many technical obstacles, financial problems, and discouragement from colleagues, his goal was achieved after twenty tedious years of tireless work. ⋯ In Eastern Europe and particularly in the former Czechoslovakia, the lack of access to foreign medical literature forced a group of emerging young physicians from the Second Department of Surgery at Comenius University to furtively collect data on the topic. After building the Simkovic-Bolf heart-lung machine, the first successful open-heart surgery with the new device was performed only 5 years after Dr. Gibbons' experience (Tab. 1, Fig. 4, Ref. 22).
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Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a disease characterised by a gradual increase in resistance of pulmonary circulation leading to right ventricular failure and death. In only 10 % of cases, there is a response to acute vasoreactivity testing with a significant reduction in mean pulmonary artery pressure (PAP), while in this group of patients, less than one half of cases benefit from long-term treatment with calcium channel blockers (CCB). This paper describes a case report of a young patient with dyspnoea and suspicion of pulmonary hypertension who was referred to a specialised centre. ⋯ Because there was a positive response to vasoreactivity testing, the treatment for IPAH was initiated with a high dose of CCB. This treatment markedly improved her clinical state as well as echocardiographic and hemodynamic findings. In this study, the authors present a diagnostic algorithm in pulmonary hypertension and emphasise the role of CCB in treatment of PAH in carefully selected patients (Tab. 1, Fig. 5, Ref. 7).