IABP had no significant effects on LVEDP, LVESV, and LVEF. In contrast, CAFA significantly

decreased LVEDP and LVESV and increased LVEF. Compared with IABP, CAFA was accompanied by significant improvements in circulating levels of neurohormones, cytokines, and natriuretic peptides.

Conclusions: The results indicate that CAFA is more effective than IABP in achieving acute global LV unloading in dogs with chronic HF not complicated by ongoing myocardial ischemia or cardiogenic shock. (J Cardiac Fail 2009;15;523-528)”
“Pigs accidentally given feed contaminated by dioxin-like pollutants are a serious public health issue. We have examined whether pigs with limited exposure during Selleckchem GSK1120212 early periods of fattening would be categorized as noncompliant with the EU limit at slaughtering when growth-dilution, excretion and metabolism effects are considered. Sixteen female and sixteen castrated male weaned pigs were divided into URMC-099 four groups (e.g. DG0, DC1, DG2 and DG3) in week 2 after birth. From weeks 3 to 13, groups DG1, DG2, and DG3 pigs were fed with a polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin/dibenzofuran (PCDD/F) and polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) mixture at dosages of 1, 10 and 100 ng-toxic equivalent (TEQ) per kg dry

mass feed in capsules, respectively. From weeks 13 to 23, the animals were nourished with clear feed. Control group DG0 was always fed with clear feed. Subcutaneous fat samples were collected at weeks 13, 18 and 23 by biopsies. The pollutant residues were analyzed by high resolution gas chromatography-high resolution

mass spectrometry and quantified by a (13)C-isotope dilution method. The results showed the following: (1) when slaughtered at week 23, the TEQ for DG1 pigs (0.66 +/- 0.21 pg/g fat) was under the EU limit of 1 pg PCDD/F-TEQ/g fat; (2) PCDD/F find more congener-specific first-order elimination rates were linearly correlated with their toxicity equivalency factors (TEFs), and the rates were significantly dose-dependent for the more toxic congeners (TEF >= 0.1). Therefore, the pigs’ exposure above the EU limit during the early fattening stage did not necessarily lead to their categorization as non-compliant pork; and the residual TEQ for pork can be predicted from early exposure concentrations based on the models established here. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“The surgical treatment of adult scoliosis still presents many points of discussion. Decision-making on the type of treatment is mandatory to evaluate all the possible alternatives to surgery.

From January 2000 to December 2008, 49 cases of adult degenerative scoliosis and kyphoscoliosis were surgically treated. Thirty-six patients were monitored for a mean of 8 years (5-10). There were 10 males and 26 females, with a mean age of 66 years (55-80).