Inpatient management includes intravenous fluid resuscitation and intravenous antibiotics. Patients with a localized abscess may be candidates for computed tomography-guided percutaneous drainage. Fifteen to 30 percent of patients admitted with acute diverticulitis require surgical intervention during that admission. Laparoscopic surgery results in a shorter length of stay, fewer complications, and lower in-hospital mortality compared with open colectomy. The decision to proceed to surgery in patients with recurrent diverticulitis should be individualized and based on patient

preference, comorbidities, and lifestyle. Interventions to prevent recurrences of diverticulitis check details include increased intake of dietary fiber, exercise, cessation of smoking, and, in persons with a body mass index of 30 kg per m(2) or higher, weight loss. Copyright (C) 2013 American Academy of Family Physicians.”
“Background: Radiofrequency (RF) shading artifacts degrade image quality while performing cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) at higher field strengths. In this article, we sought to evaluate the effect of local RF (B-1 field) shimming by using a dual-source-transmit RF system for cardiac cine imaging and to systematically evaluate the effect of subject body type on the B-1 field with and without local RF shimming.

Methods: We obtained cardiac images from 37 subjects (including 11 patients) by using dual-transmit 3T CMR.

B-1 maps with and without subject-specific local RF shimming (exploiting the independent control of transmit amplitude and phase of the 2 RF transmitters) were obtained. Metrics quantifying B-1 field homogeneity EPZ004777 ic50 were calculated selleck and compared with subject body habitus.

Results: Local RF shimming across the region encompassed by the heart increased the mean flip angle (mu) in that area (88.5 +/- 15.2% vs. 81.2 +/- 13.3%; P = 0.0014), reduced the B-1 field variation by 42.2 +/- 13%, and significantly improved the percentage of voxels closer to mu (39% and 82% more voxels were closer to +/- 10% and +/-

5% of mu, respectively) when compared with no RF shimming. B-1 homogeneity was independent of subject body type (body surface area [BSA], body mass index [BMI] or anterior-posterior/right-left patient width ratio [AP/RL]). Subject specific RF (B-1) shimming with a dual-transmit system improved local RF homogeneity across all body types.

Conclusion: With or without RF shimming, cardiac B-1 field homogeneity does not depend on body type, as characterized by BMI, BSA, and AP/RL. For all body types studied, cardiac B-1 field homogeneity was significantly improved by performing local RF shimming with 2 independent RF-transmit channels. This finding indicates the need for subject-specific RF shimming.”
“The purpose of this study was to investigate the therapeutic efficacy of udenafil (CAS 268203-93-6), a phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) inhibitor, on bile duct ligation (BDL)-induced portal hypertension.