Endovascular stent graft repair of aortopulmonary fistula. (1/522)

Two patients who had aortopulmonary fistula of postoperative origin with hemoptysis underwent successful repair by means of an endovascular stent graft procedure. One patient had undergone repeated thoracotomies two times, and the other one time to repair anastomotic aneurysms of the descending aorta after surgery for Takayasu's arteritis. A self-expanding stainless steel stent covered with a Dacron graft was inserted into the lesion through the external iliac or femoral artery. The patients recovered well, with no signs of infection or recurrent hemoptysis 8 months after the procedure. Endovascular stent grafting may be a therapeutic option for treating patients with aortopulmonary fistula.  (+info)

In vitro comparison of the retention capacity of new aesthetic brackets. (2/522)

Tensile bond strength and bond failure location were evaluated in vitro for two types of aesthetic brackets (non-silanated ceramic, polycarbonate) and one stainless steel bracket, using bovine teeth as the substrate and diacrylate resin as the adhesive. The results show that metallic bracket had the highest bond strength (13.21 N) followed by the new plastic bracket (12.01 N), which does not require the use of a primer. The non-silanated ceramic bracket produced the lowest bond strength (8.88 N). Bond failures occurred mainly between bracket and cement, although a small percentage occurred between the enamel-cement interface with the metal and plastic brackets and within the cement for the plastic bracket. With the ceramic bracket all the failures occurred at the bracket-cement interface. This suggests that the problems of enamel lesions produced by this type of bracket may have been eliminated. The results also show that the enamel/adhesive bond is stronger than the adhesive/bracket bond in this in vitro study.  (+info)

The crystal growth technique--a laboratory evaluation of bond strengths. (3/522)

An ex vivo study was carried out to determine differences in the bond strengths achieved with brackets placed using a crystal growth technique compared with a conventional acid-etch technique. A solution of 37 per cent phosphoric acid was used for acid-etching and a commercially available polyacrylic acid gel, Crystal-lok for crystal growth. A heavily-filled composite resin was used for all samples to bond brackets to healthy premolar teeth extracted for orthodontic purposes. Polycrystalline ceramic and stainless steel brackets were used and tested to both tensile and shear failure using an Instron Universal Testing machine. The tensile and shear bond strengths were recorded in kgF. In view of difficulties experienced with previous authors using different units to describe their findings, the data were subsequently converted to a range of units in order to facilitate direct comparison. The crystal growth technique produced significantly lower bond strengths than the acid-etch technique for ceramic and stainless steel brackets, both in tensile and shear mode. The tensile bond strength for stainless steel brackets with crystal growth was 2.2 kg compared with 6.01 kg for acid-etch, whilst with ceramic brackets the tensile bond strengths were 3.9 kg for crystal growth and 5.55 kg for acid-etch. The mean shear bond strength for stainless steel brackets with crystal growth was 12.61 kg compared with 21.55 kg for acid-etch, whilst with ceramic brackets the shear bond strengths were 7.93 kg with crystal growth compared with 16.55 kg for acid-tech. These bond strengths were below those previously suggested as clinically acceptable.  (+info)

Streptococcus waius sp. nov., a thermophilic Streptococcus from a biofilm. (4/522)

Thermophilic streptococci were isolated from biofilms on stainless steel samples exposed to pasteurized skimmed milk and from dairy products from a dairy manufacturing plant. The phenotypic characters of these isolates were distinct from those of other thermophilic streptococci of dairy origin (Streptococcus thermophilus and Streptococcus bovis). Genotypic data [restriction endonuclease analysis, ribotyping, random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) profiles, DNA-DNA hybridization and G + C contents] support the classification of these isolates as a new species. The sequence of the 16S rRNA was compared with that of 29 species of streptococci and shown to be significantly different. The sequence of the 16S-23S rRNA intergenic spacer region also differed from published sequences of closely related species. A fluorescent in situ hybridization probe prepared to a specific part of the 16S rRNA gene sequence was able to distinguish the unknown isolates from reference isolates of S. thermophilus and S. bovis. It is proposed that these thermophilic streptococcal isolates from a dairy environment be classified in the genus Streptococcus as a new species, Streptococcus waius (from waiu, the New Zealand Maori word for milk). The type strain is 3/1T (= NZRCC 20100T).  (+info)

Super pulse CO2 laser for bracket bonding and debonding. (5/522)

A super pulse and a normal pulse CO2 laser were used to carry out enamel etching and bracket debonding in vitro and in vivo. The shear bond strength of the orthodontic brackets attached to laser-etched and conventional chemically-etched extracted premolars was measured. The pulp cavity temperature was also measured using the same laser irradiation conditions as the shear test. Both super pulse and normal pulse CO2 laser etching resulted in a lower shear bond strength (super pulse: 6.9 +/- 3.4 kg, normal pulse: 9.7 +/- 5.2 kg) than that of chemical etching (15.3 +/- 2.8 kg). Furthermore, the super pulse CO2 laser was able to create debonding at 2 watts within a period of less than 4 seconds (2.9 +/- 0.9 seconds). The super pulse, when irradiating the ceramic brackets from above, during debonding showed a 1.4 degrees C temperature increase in the dental pulp at 2 watts and an increase of 2.1 degrees C at 3 watts. While etching, directly irradiating the enamel surface at 3 watts, the dental pulp showed a temperature increase of 3.5 degrees C. These temperature increases were within the physiologically acceptable limits of the pulp. These results indicate that, in orthodontic treatments, super pulse CO2 laser debonding is more useful than laser etching.  (+info)

A laboratory investigation to compare enamel preparation by sandblasting or acid etching prior to bracket bonding. (6/522)

A laboratory investigation to compare the mean shear debonding force and mode of bond failure of metallic brackets bonded to sandblasted and acid-etched enamel is described. The buccal surfaces of 30 extracted human premolars were sandblasted for 5 seconds with 50 mu alumina and the buccal surfaces of a further 30 human premolars were etched with 37 per cent phosphoric acid for 15 seconds. Following storage for 24 hours at 37 degrees C in distilled water, shear debonding force was measured using an Instron Universal Testing Machine with a cross-head speed of 10 mm/minute. Mean shear debonding force was significantly lower for brackets bonded to sandblasted enamel compared to acid etched enamel (P < 0.001). Weibull analysis showed that at a given stress the probability of failure was significantly greater for brackets bonded to sandblasted enamel. Brackets bonded to etched enamel showed a mixed mode of bond failure whereas following sandblasting, failure was adhesive at the enamel/composite interface (P < 0.01).  (+info)

Infectivity of scrapie prions bound to a stainless steel surface. (7/522)

BACKGROUND: The transmissible agent of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is not readily destroyed by conventional sterilization and transmissions by surgical instruments have been reported. Decontamination studies have been carried out thus far on solutions or suspensions of the agent and may not reflect the behavior of surface-bound infectivity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: As a model for contaminated surgical instruments, thin stainless-steel wire segments were exposed to scrapie agent, washed exhaustively with or without treatment with 10% formaldehyde, and implanted into the brains of indicator mice. Infectivity was estimated from the time elapsing to terminal disease. RESULTS: Stainless steel wire (0.15 x 5 mm) exposed to scrapie-infected mouse brain homogenate and washed extensively with PBS retained the equivalent of about 10(5) LD50 units per segment. Treatment with 10% formaldehyde for 1 hr reduced this value by only about 30-fold. CONCLUSIONS: The model system we have devised confirms the anecdotal reports that steel instruments can retain CJD infectivity even after formaldehyde treatment. It lends itself to a systematic study of the conditions required to effectively inactivate CJD, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, and scrapie agent adsorbed to stainless steel surfaces such as those of surgical instruments.  (+info)

Effect of milk proteins on adhesion of bacteria to stainless steel surfaces. (8/522)

Stainless steel coupons were treated with skim milk and subsequently challenged with individual bacterial suspensions of Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas fragi, Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, and Serratia marcescens. The numbers of attached bacteria were determined by direct epifluorescence microscopy and compared with the attachment levels on clean stainless steel with two different surface finishes. Skim milk was found to reduce adhesion of S. aureus, L. monocytogenes, and S. marcescens. P. fragi and E. coli attached in very small numbers to the clear surfaces, making the effect of any adsorbed protein layer difficult to assess. Individual milk proteins alpha-casein, beta-casein, kappa-casein, and alpha-lactalbumin were also found to reduce the adhesion of S. aureus and L. monocytogenes. The adhesion of bacteria to samples treated with milk dilutions up to 0.001% was investigated. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was used to determine the proportion of nitrogen in the adsorbed films. Attached bacterial numbers were inversely related to the relative atomic percentage of nitrogen on the surface. A comparison of two types of stainless steel surface, a 2B and a no. 8 mirror finish, indicated that the difference in these levels of surface roughness did not greatly affect bacterial attachment, and reduction in adhesion to a milk-treated surface was still observed. Cross-linking of adsorbed proteins partially reversed the inhibition of bacterial attachment, indicating that protein chain mobility and steric exclusion may be important in this phenomenon.  (+info)