Diagnosis of and treatment for symptomatic carotid stenosis: an updated review.

Carotid stenoses of ≥50% account for about 15-20% of strokes. Their degree may be moderate (50-69%) or severe (70-99%). Current diagnostic methods include ultrasound, MR- or CT-angiography. Stenosis severity, irregular plaque surface, and presence of microembolic signals detected by transcranial Doppler predict the early recurrence risk, which may be as high as 20%. Initial therapy comprises antiplatelets and statins. Benefit of revascularization is greater in men, in older patients, and in severe stenosis; patients with moderate stenoses may also profit particularly if the plaque has an irregular aspect. An intervention should be performed within <2 weeks. In large randomized studies comparing endarterectomy and stenting, endovascular therapy was associated with a higher risk of periprocedural stroke, yet in some studies, with a lower risk of myocardial infarction and of cranial neuropathy. These trials support endarterectomy as the first choice treatment. Risk factors for each of the two therapies have been indentified: coronary artery disease, neck radiation, contralateral laryngeal nerve palsy for endarterectomy, and, elderly patients (>70 years), arch vessel tortuosity and plaques with low echogenicity on ultrasound for carotid stenting. Lastly, in direct comparisons, a contralateral occlusion increases the risk of periprocedural complications in both types of treatment.

[Diabetic foot infection: a multidisciplinary approach]. / Traitement du pied diabétique infecté: une approche multidisciplinaire par excellence.

Diabetic foot infection is a frequent, multifactorial and multifacettal disease. Its management requires an interdisciplinary collaboration. Multiple medical and surgical specialties are enrolled for its prevention and treatment, for good reasons. Concomitant management by various specialists shows a significant reduction in amputation rates. We review the issues of this interdisciplinary collaboration.

Propagation of Bessel beams from a dielectric to a conducting medium.

Recently, the use of Bessel beams in evaluating the possibility of using them for a new generation of ground penetrating radar systems has been considered. Therefore, an analysis of the propagation of Bessel beams in conducting media is worthwhile. We present here an analysis of this type. Specifically, for normal incidence we analyze the propagation of a Bessel beam coming from a perfect dielectric and impinging on a conducting medium, i.e., the propagation of a Bessel beam generated by refracted inhomogeneous waves. The remarkable and unexpected result is that the incident Bessel beam does not change its shape even when propagating in the conducting medium.

Microwave variable waveguide attenuator.

A new type of cutoff attenuator is presented. The attenuator works in the X-band in conditions of almost perfect matching. This means that the phase of the wave, which propagates inside the guide, does not suffer sensible variation in the passage between X- and K(u)-bands. Moreover, the attenuator works directly in the X-band, avoiding the passage between waveguide and cable, thus eliminating spurious effects due to this (double) passage. Experimental results of attenuation and dephasing using a prototype are also presented.

Superluminal X-wave propagation: energy localization and velocity.

The electromagnetic propagation of a Bessel-X wave is analyzed on the basis of a vectorial treatment in order to obtain information about the propagation of energy flux and the velocity of the energy. Knowledge of these quantities is of great interest since they are connected to the production of localized electromagnetic energy and to the topic of superluminality, respectively. The electric and magnetic fields are obtained in the far-field approximation by considering a realistic situation able to generate a Bessel-X wave. The vectorial treatment confirms the capability of this kind of wave to localize energy, while, quite surprisingly, even if the group velocity is superluminal, the energy velocity is equal to the light speed.

Real-time analysis of the telegrapher's equation for tunneling processes.

Based on a close analogy with an RLC circuit, a model for interpreting delay times in forbidden regimes (tunneling) is formulated, avoiding the analytical continuation into imaginary time. In this way, a reasonable description of experimental data, which were previously reported for a waveguide propagation below the cutoff frequency at approximately 9.5 GHz, is obtained.

Unexpected behavior of crossing microwave beams.

An anomalous effect in the near field of crossed microwave beams, consisting in an unexpected transfer of modulation from one beam to the other, cannot be fully interpreted, at least not in a simple way, in terms of the usual electromagnetic or related framework. It is hypothesized that a local breaking of the Lorentz invariance, already invoked for an alternative interpretation of superluminal behaviors in these kinds of systems, could provide a partial explanation of the present results, although other interpretations cannot be completely ruled out.

Tunneling as a stochastic process: a path-integral model for microwave experiments.

Delay time results obtained in microwave experiments at frequencies above and below the cutoff frequency of different waveguide sections are interpreted on the basis of wave propagation in the presence of dissipative effects. Kac's original suggestion was the starting point for the formulation of a stochastic model, which has now been substantially improved, also in relation to the transition-elements theory of Feynman-Hibbs. In this way, an approach to the problem is provided, which is completely distinct from the ones formulated elsewhere.

Observation of superluminal behaviors in wave propagation

The possibility of observing superluminal behavior in the propagation of localized microwaves over distances of tens of wavelengths is experimentally demonstrated. These types of waves, better than the evanescent modes of tunneling, can contribute to answering the question on the luminal limit of the signal velocity.