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Fault-propagation folds are important contractional structures developed in upper crustal conditions. Here we analyze a fault-propagation fold, made up of Carboniferous limestones, sited in the Cantabrian fold and thrust belt, NW Iberian Peninsula. The technique employed consists of detailed structural analysis integrated with cross-section restoration. Such approach allowed us to validate the geological interpretation and to decipher the deformation architecture using an inverse model based on strain markers. The results are illustrated overlapping contour maps and diagrams on top of the deformed, present-day cross section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decreased testicular blood flow as a consequence cephalad fluid shift occurring under microgravity conditions causes impaired spermatogenesis in males. The tail suspended model has been used mainly in studies of muscle atrophy/osteoporosis and of body fluid shift in few studies aimed at spermatogenesis. We examined serum testosterone levels, testis morphology and apoptotic phenomena in tail suspended mice, a model used to reproduce some of the effects of the absence of gravity. Male C57BL mice (6 months old) were divided into two groups: tail suspended (TS) and controls (C). After 14 days of treatment testosterone levels were determined. On fixed sections histological stain (HE) was performed; DNA fragmentation was visualized using TUNEL technique. On the frozen samples immunoblotting for BAX, Bcl2, Caspase 39 and pS3 was carried out. Testosterone levels were 0.18±0.09 and 3.74±2.2 ng/ml (mean±DS) in suspended and control animals, respectively. HE staining showed disturbed cell arrangement and a markedly decreased number of spermatozoa in the testes, TUNEL revealed an increased apoptotic index and immunoblotting provided evidence of apoptotic markers in TS animals. These data support results previously obtained by other groups showing a significant influence of short duration microgravity conditions on testicular function [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Antarctic Ocean salt concentration differs from the bottom to the surface owing to the seasonal forming and melting of sea ice. Antarctic teleosts present different lifestyle from benthic to pelagic. While benthic animals face a constant seawater salinity, benthic–pelagic animals have to face different salt concentration. Branchial morphology and ion–water transport proteins were compared in animals with different lifestyle. The ultrastructure of the gills was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Na+/K+/ATPase, Na+/K+/Cl− cotransport protein NKCC1 and Aquaporin 3 (AQP3), were investigated by immunohistochemistry. The immunoreactivity for the ion transporter proteins were more intense in the active benthic–pelagic animals and in the icefishes than in the sluggish benthic ones. Conversely, AQP immunoreactivity was stronger in the animals with sedentary lifestyles. The SEM showed the secondary lamellae in the benthic–pelagic animals more densely packed with the exception of the haemoglobin free teleosts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims The value of exercise electrocardiography in evaluating women with suspected coronary artery disease is limited. Conversely, stress echocardiography is effective for both diagnostic and prognostic purposes in females. The purpose of the study was to determine the relative prognostic value of exercise electrocardiography and pharmacological stress echocardiography in a cohort of women with chest pain of unknown origin, in order to verify whether criteria could be established for the daily non-invasive evaluation of such a low-risk profile population.Methods and Results Exercise electrocardiography and pharmacological stress echocardiography (171 dipyridamole, 73 dobutamine) were performed in 244 women (age 60±10 years) with chest pain and known coronary artery disease. A positive result of exercise electrocardiography (ST-segment shift ≥1mm at 80ms after the J point) was detected in 95 patients; a positive result of stress echocardiography (new regional wall motion abnormalities) was observed in 33 patients. During follow-up (36±18 months), two deaths, five infarctions, seven unstable anginas, and 11 coronary revascularizations occurred. Using Cox analysis, the positive result of stress echocardiography (odds ratio=40·1) alone, was independently related to hard cardiac events (death, infarction). With spontaneous cardiac events (death, infarction, and unstable angina) as end-points, the multivariate prognostic predictors were a positive result of stress echocardiography (odds ratio= 37·0), a family history of coronary artery disease (odds ratio=4·1), typical chest pain (odds ratio=3·7), and a positive exercise electrocardiography result with a rate–pressure product ≤20000 (odds ratio=3·5). By adopting an interactive stepwise procedure, the prognostic value of stress echocardiography was incremental to that of clinical and exercise electrocardiography data. Nevertheless, the negative result of exercise electrocardiography and pharmacological stress predicted a very high and comparable (P=ns) 24-month survival rate when both hard and spontaneous cardiac events were taken as end-points.Conclusions In women with chest pain, stress echocardiography is a strong and independent prognostic indicator, incremental to that shown by exercise electrocardiography. However, the two tests have a similar high negative predictive value in this population. Therefore, exercise electrocardiography has to be considered the initial approach and the only test when the result is negative, whereas stress echocardiography is warranted in selected conditions, including those in women with uninterpretable electrocardiograms, those unable to exercise maximally, and those with an ambiguous or ischaemic response to exercise electrocardiography. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The short term reproducibility of exercise testing in 25 patients who had exercise induced ST segment elevation without baseline regional asynergy or a previous myocardial infarction, who had different responses to the dipyridamole test, was assessed. The patients performed a dipyridamole echocardiography test and a second exercise stress test. All underwent coronary arteriography. Seventeen patients had transient regional asynergy after dipyridamole (group 1) and either ST segment elevation (14 patients) or depression (three patients); a second group of eight had no asynergy and no electrocardiographic changes (group 2). The repeated exercise stress test was positive in 16 of the 17 patients of group 1 (11 with ST elevation and five with ST depression) and in two patients of group 2 (both had ST depression and one had coronary artery disease). The dipyridamole echocardiography test was positive in 17 of the 19 patients with coronary artery disease and was negative in all six patients without coronary artery disease. The repeated exercise stress test was positive in 17 of the 19 patients with coronary artery disease and in one patient without. The dipyridamole echocardiography test and a repeated exercise stress test, but not a single exercise stress test, identified coronary artery disease causing exercise induced ST segment elevation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Twenty-four patients with a history of effort angina, a positive exercise stress test (EST) and coronary artery disease were enrolled in the study; 12 patientshada positive dipyridamole-echocardiography test (DET) and 12 had a negative DET. Each patient performed a total of 4 ESTs in the absence of therapy on two successive days; for each test the rate-pressure product (RPP), an established index of my ocardial oxygen demand, was measured at the onset of ischaemia (ST depression >0–15mV) or at the peak of maximal exercise (if a repeated EST was negative). Taking into account the lowest of the 4 RPP values ( × 1/100) in each patient, there was no significant difference between DET-negatives and DET-positives (185.2±49.3 vs 157.4±32.4). Conversely, when considering the highest of the 4 RPP values in each patient, there was a significant difference between DET-negatives and DET-positives (280.3 ± 63.9 vs 183.3 ± 37.0; p < 0.01). Thus, DET may provide a clinically useful tool for assessing in the individual the organic ’ceiling‘ of coronary reserve, by eliminating the variability in coronary tone, which may affect EST reproducibility and the correct evaluation of the impairment of organic coronary reserve. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Thirty-nine patients with early post-infarction angina (all with significant, angiographically assessed coronary artery disease and a baseline asynergy on 2-D echo), performed a dipyridamole–echocardiography test (DET: 2-D echo monitoring with dipyridamole infusion, 0·14 mg kg−1 min−1 for 4 min). Twenty-nine patients had a positive DET(sensitivitv = 74%). Two mechanical patterns of DET-positivity could be identified: (1)a worsening of the asynergy in that same region showing a baseline asynergy (11 patients); (2)a ‘de novo’ asynergy in a region remote from the one showing a baseline asynergy (18 patients); The prevalence of single-vessel disease was significantly higher in patients with type 1 positivity pattern (6 single-, three double- and two triple-vessel disease), while patients with type 2 positivity always showed a multivessel coronary involvement (8 double-, 10 triple-vessel disease). In 4 of the 10 patients with 3-vessel disease and type 2 asynergy, such asynergy developed in a territory different from the one supplied by the more stenotic non-infarct-related vessel.In conclusion, DET represents a safe and feasible tool effectively to localize ischaemia, relative to the infarcted region, and to evaluate the haetnodynamic signficance of coronary lesions in patients with post-infarction angina. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We describe the case of a dual chamber rate responsive pacemaker (Relay, model 294-03, Intermedics, Angleton, TX, USA) implanted in a 68-year-old male for sick sinus syndrome, which was not working properly when programmed in the DDIR mode, thus determining occasionally a sort of 'WI' pacing. However, the pacemaker performed well when programmed in the DDDR mode. We discovered that this was not a malfunction of a single device but rather a general behavior of this family of Intermedics dual chamber pacemakers (also not rate responsive), caused by a software problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]