067).”
“Objective: To study the effectiveness
of propranolol in infantile air Nay haemangiomas and compare the effectiveness of propranolol vs. different therapies.
Methods: A literature search of Ovid, Embase, the Cochrane database, Google(TM) Scholar, and Medline using PubMed as the search engine was performed to identify studies that analysed the effect of propranolol treatment OSI 744 in children with airway haemangiomas. Random-effect meta-analytical techniques were conducted for the outcome measures.
Results: Thirteen studies, comprising 36 patients were included in :he analysis. Propranolol was found to be an effective intervention for the resolution of infantile airway haemangiomas (P < 0.00001). Meta-analysis of effectiveness of propranolol vs. steroids, CO(2) laser, or vincristine showed that propranolol is the most
effective treatment.
Conclusions: This meta-analysis demonstrated that propranolol should be recommended as a first-line treatment in infantile airway haemangiomas. However, because of the possible side effects of propranolol, current infantile haemangioma treatment centres recommend a full cardiovascular and respiratory review be performed prior to initiation of therapy. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Previous neuroimaging studies have documented the structural damage in heroin addicts. However, little research has detailed the white matter microstructural changes in the human brain as a result of chronic heroin use and importantly,
whether such changes can be recovered after short-term abstinence. Decreased fractional selleck screening library anisotropy values in frontal cortex were found in heroin Protein Tyrosine Kinase inhibitor users after 3 days of abstinence in comparison with controls. However, no significant difference was found between these heroin addicts and controls after 1-month abstinence. These results might better our understanding of the biological basis of drug addiction and provide insight into addiction treatment.”
“Malignant hyperthermia (MH) results from disordered calcium (Ca2+) homeostasis in skeletal muscle during general anesthesia. Although Ca2+ channel blockers may be given to treat the tachycardia and circulatory instability, coadministration of Ca2+ channel blockers and dantrolene is contraindicated during MH crisis. We evaluated the effect of Ca2+ channel blockers on Ca2+ homeostasis and their interactions with dantrolene in human skeletal muscle.
Human skeletal muscle samples were obtained by biopsy and divided into two groups according to the results of the Ca2+-induced Ca2+ release rate test. Differentiated myotubes were labeled with Fura-2, and changes in the 340/380-nm ratio were used to calculate changes in Ca2+ concentration following nifedipine treatment in the absence or presence of dantrolene.
Nifedipine induced a transient increase in the intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+](i)) in a dose-dependent manner. The half-maximal concentration (EC50) for nifedipine was 0.718 +/- A 0.