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Objective: Wider application of CT angiography (CTA) improves the diagnosis of acute pulmonary embolism (PE). It also permits the visualisation of saddle embolism (SE), namely thrombi, which are located at the bifurcation of the main pulmonary artery. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of SE and whether SE predicts a complicated clinical course in patients with non-high-risk PE. Methods: In total, 297 consecutive patients with non-high-risk PE confirmed using CTA in the emergency department were studied. The presence of SE and its ability to predict the occurrence of major adverse events (MAEs) within 1 month were determined. Results: Of the 297 patients, 27 (9.1%) had an SE. The overall mortality at 1 month was 12.5%; no significant difference was observed between the SE and non-SE groups (18.5% vs 11.9%, p=0.32). However, patients with SE were more likely to receive thrombolytic therapy (29.6% vs 8.1%, p<0.01) and had significantly more MAEs (59.3% vs 25.6%, p<0.01). Conclusion: At the time of diagnosis, SE, as determined using CTA, is associated with the development of MAE within 1 month. It may be a simple method for risk stratification of patients with non-high-risk PE. Advances in knowledge: The prognosis of patients with SE, especially those who are haemodynamically stable, is unclear. This study shows that patients with SE, determined with CTA, is associated with the development of MAE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of indigenous herbal supplements on growth, blood metabolites and carcass characteristics in the late fattening period of Hanwoo steers. In a 6 month feeding trial, thirty Hanwoo steers (647±32 kg) were allotted to one of 5 treatment groups, control (basal diet contained lasalocid), licorice, clove, turmeric and silymarin, with six steers per pen. All groups received ad libitum concentrate and 1 kg rice straw/animal/d throughout the feeding trial. Blood samples were collected at the beginning, middle, and the end of the experiment and the steers were slaughtered at the end. Blood glucose, triglyceride, total protein, and albumin concentrations were higher in the turmeric treatment compared with other treatments. Blood urea nitrogen and creatinine concentrations were highest (p<0.003 and p = 0.071, respectively) in steers treated with silymarin. Alanine aminotransferase activity was lower (p<0.06) for licorice and silymarin compared with the control group. There were no alterations in serum aspartate aminotransferase and gamma glutamyltransferase activities as a consequence of herb treatments (p = 0.203 and 0.135, respectively). Final body weight, body weight gain, average dairy gain and dry matter intake were not significantly different among treatments. Yield grade, marbling score and quality grade were higher for silymarin group than those of the control group (p<0.05). Therefore, the results suggest that silymarin can be used an effective dietary supplement as an alternative to antibiotic feed additive and a productivity enhancer, providing safe and more consumer acceptable alternative to synthetic compounds during the late fattening period of steers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work we report a phenomenon of the self-formation of nanostructure arrays during low-energy inductively coupled argon plasma treatment of the surface of copper indium gallium diselenide films grown by different methods on glass substrates. Selenization, pulsed laser deposition and multistage co-evaporation technological methods were used for the growth of polycrystalline CuIn1−xGaxSe2 (0.04 ≤ x ≤ 0.45) films. The plasma treatment of the surface of the films grown by all three methods resulted in the plasma-assisted self-formation of arrays of uniform cylindrical or conical nanostructures with the surface density of (0.8–1.8) × 1011 cm−2. Using scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy, we describe the morphological parameters and chemical composition of the fabricated nanostructures and discuss possible physical mechanisms of the observed plasma-assisted nanostructuring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]