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Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension is a difficult disease to diagnose and treat. It is part of a group of catastrophic diseases with high mortality in the group of patients diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension. The therapy is currently determined by a group of drugs with multiple pathways inactivation in lung remodeling as endothelin receptor antagonists, phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors and prostacyclin. Recently, riociguat, a soluble molecule that stimulates guanylate cyclase pathway of nitric oxide, is a drug approved promising in the treatment of pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary hypertension associated with thromboembolism. In recent years, riociguat has shown significant improvement in exercise tolerance and hemodynamic parameters that allow clinical improvement. These cases described provide initial evidence of our medical practice on the benefits of riociguat in critically ill patients with pulmonary hypertension secondary to thromboembolism, in which clinical and hemodynamic parameters improvement was achieved. These benefits have enabled the patient a better quality of life and reduce mortality dramatically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The operating conditions for the autohydrolysis of eucalyptus wood were optimized with a view to maximizing hemicellulose extraction while preserving the integrity of glucan. The influence of the operating conditions used in the soda–anthraquinone pulping of the solid phase resulting from the autohydrolysis process was examined. Autohydrolysis of the raw material at a liquid/solid ratio of 8 kg water/kg material at 180°C for 30 min was found to provide a commercially useful liquid phase containing most of the starting hemicellulose. The autohydrolysis treatment allowed the subsequent production of soda–anthraquinone cellulose pulp and paper with properties as good as or even better than those obtained without the pretreatment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a new methodology to obtain the line impedance of current railway tracks by using only short-circuit measurements. Open-circuit measurements required by conventional methodologies are discarded, since they cannot be carried out for railway tracks in service (electrically continuous and indefinite length). The mathematical basis of the proposed methodology is based on the transmission line theory but focused on the changes in track length. The proposal has been successfully applied to characterize the impedance of the high-speed railway line at the Spanish AVE Madrid-Valencia (Cuenca) and in the AVE Atocha-Chamartin tunnel (Madrid). Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Acute mesenteric ischemia is a vascular emergency with mortality above 60%, which requires opportune treatment. However, due to its heterogeneous pathophysiology and differences in degree and extent of ischemic damage, the clinical and radiological manifestations are varied and often nonspecific; consequently, a thorough analysis of antecedents, laboratory studies, and clinical and radiological findings is recommended in order to establish a timely diagnosis. Objective: Identify the most common findings, direct and indirect, by computed tomography and determine low, intermediate, and high probability of a patient's suffering from acute mesenteric ischemia on the basis of risk factors and clinical, biochemical, and radiological findings. Material and methods: We performed a retrospective, observational, cross-sectional study, with analysis of findings from computed tomography images, of a series of cases of patients with diagnosis of acute mesenteric ischemia in a period of 9 years, 3 months and literature review. The purpose was to analyze the risk factors and clinical and biochemical data most commonly associated with acute mesenteric ischemia. Results: Our universe included tomographic studies of 27 cases of acute mesenteric ischemia, with average age of 60.8 years. The most common clinical datum was acute abdominal pain syndrome in 19 patients (70%); the most commonly associated antecedents were type 2 diabetes mellitus and systemic high blood pressure in 7 (26%) patients each; 13 patients (48%), per clinical notes, had laboratory studies, of whom 11 (85%) had leukocyte values of 9,200 to 68,000; the most commonly identified findings were: arterial filling defect 48%, intestinal pneumatosis 29%, venous filling defect 22%, bowel obstruction syndrome 22%, and identification of free fluid 22%. Conclusion: It is recommendable to conduct a quantitative analysis giving a specific value to the different findings, including risk factors, physical exploration, laboratory studies, and image findings, to determine the risk of acute mesenteric ischemia in a patient with acute abdominal pain syndrome. Angiotomography is the study with the greatest diagnostic precision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]