European Society of Anaesthesiology.

Introduction/Objective The ideal reconstruction procedure after total gastrectomy should replace all lost functions of the stomach. The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of preserving the duodenal passage in subsequent improvement of body weight (BW) and body mass index (BMI) in patients with gastric cancer after total gastrectomy. Methods A total of 30 patients with gastric cancer were prospectively randomly divided into a group of reconstruction with double-tract (n = 15) and a group of reconstruction with simple Roux-en-Y after total gastrectomy. They were stratified by sex, age, their anthropometric measurements (BW, BMI), primary tumor localization, Lauren's classification, TNM stage classification, length of hospital stay, operation duration, postoperative complications, and mortality. Postoperatively, BW and BMI were measured at three, six, and 12 months and compared between the two groups. Results The clinical group of double-tract patients had significantly higher the values of BW in the postoperative period after six (66.6 ± 4.9 vs. 61.7 ± 7.6; p < 0.05 paired Student's t-test) and after 12 months (67.0 ± 4.9 vs. 62.3 ± 7.2; p < 0.05 paired Student's t-test) compared to the group of Roux-en-Y patients. On the other hand, the clinical group of double-tract patients also had significantly higher the values of BMI in postoperative period after 12 months (23.6 ± 1.1 vs. 22.5 ± 1.6; p < 0.05 paired Student's t-test) in relation to the Roux-en-Y group of patients. Conclusion Reconstruction procedure carried out after total gastrectomy which implies preserving the duodenal passage has significant increase of BW and BMI, compared to reconstruction procedure without the preservation of the duodenal passage.

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SummaryBackgroundRecent studies indicate that survivin (BIRC5) is sensitive to the existence of previous ischemic heart disease, since it is activated in the process of tissue repair and angiogenesis. The aim of this study was to determine the potential of survivin (BIRC5) as a new cardiac biomarker in the preoperative assessment of cardiovascular risk in comparison with clinically accepted cardiac biomarkers and one of the relevant clinical risk scores.MethodsWe included 79 patients, female (41) and male (38), with the mean age of 71.35±6.89. Inclusion criteria: extensive non-cardiac surgery, general anesthesia, age >55 and at least one of the selected cardiovascular risk factors (hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, smoking and positive family history). Exclusion criteria: emergency surgical procedures and inability to understand and sign an informed consent. Blood sampling was performed 7 days prior surgery and levels of survivin (BIRC5), hsCRP and H-FABP were measured.ResultsRevised Lee score was assessed based on data found in patients’ history. Levels of survivin (BIRC5) were higher in deceased patients (P<0.05). It showed AUC=0.807 (95% CI, P<0.0005, 0.698–0.917), greater than both H-FABP and revised Lee index, and it increases the mortality prediction when used together with both biomarkers and revised Lee score. The determined cut-off value was 4 pg/mL and 92.86% of deceased patients had an increased level of survivin (BIRC5), (P=0.005).ConclusionsSurvivin (BIRC5) is a potential cardiac biomarker even in elderly patients without tumor, but it cannot be used independently. Further studies with a greater number of patients are needed.

An efficient method of analysis of nonuniform transmission lines (NTL), based on wave digital model composed of cascaded unit elements and two‐port adaptors, is described. The proposed technique treats NTL as a cascade connection of equal‐length or equal‐delay uniform transmission lines. A simple algorithm for calculating transmission and input reflection coefficients is derived. Two application examples, proving the efficiency and response accuracy of the new technique, are given. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 49: 2150–2153, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.22706

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he main aim of this reported work was to design new selective cascadedintegrator-comb (CIC) filter functions. The theoretical design equations and impulse response coefficients, as well as the frequency response characteristics of the novel filter functions are presented. Compared with existing filter functions in the literature, the proposed functions not only have improved insertion loss but also a multiplierless architecture, better passband characteristics and lower impulse response coefficients.

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