Unexpected larger distribution of paleogene stem-rollers (AVES, CORACII): new evidence from the Eocene of Patagonia, Argentina.

Here we present the first record of a stem-Coracii outside the Holarctic region, found in the early Eocene of Patagonia at the Laguna del Hunco locality. Ueekenkcoracias tambussiae gen. et sp. nov. consists of an incomplete right hind limb that presents the following combination of characters, characteristic of Coracii: relatively short and stout tibiotarsus, poorly developed crista cnemialis cranialis, short and wide tarsometatarsus, with the tuberositas m. tibialis cranialis located medially on the shaft, and curved and stout ungual phalanges. Although the presence of a rounded and conspicuous foramen vasculare distale and the trochlea metatarsi II strongly deflected medially resemble Primobucconidae, a fossil group only found in the Eocene of Europe and North America, our phylogenetic analysis indicates the new taxon is the basalmost known Coracii. The unexpected presence of a stem-Coracii in the Eocene of South America indicates that this clade had a more widespread distribution than previously hypothesized, already extending into the Southern Hemisphere by the early Eocene. Ueekenkcoracias tambussiae represents new evidence of the increasing diversity of stem lineages of birds in the Eocene. The new material provides novel morphological data for understanding the evolutionary origin and radiation of rollers and important data for estimates of the divergence time of the group.

100 Ma sweat bee nests: Early and rapid co-diversification of crown bees and flowering plants.

100 Ma sweat bee nests reported herein are the oldest evidence of crown bees. A new phylogeny for short-tongued bees, calibrated with these nests dated with 40Ar/39Ar, attests for the first time for a late Albian rapid diversification of bees along with angiosperms. Such hypothesis lacked paleontological support until this study. The new ichnospecies Cellicalichnus krausei, which was found along with wasp trace fossils and new beetle trace fossils in the Castillo Formation of Patagonia, represents typical Halictini nests composed of sessile cells that are attached to main tunnels. According to geological, paleosol, paleobotanical, and ichnological data, bees, and angiosperms cohabited in an inland and dry environment comparable to an open dry woodland or savanna, under warm-temperate and semiarid-subhumid climate, in the Southern Hemisphere by the Albian.

Association of cardiovascular risk factors with microalbuminuria in hypertensive individuals: the i-SEARCH global study.

OBJECTIVES: To define the prevalence of microalbuminuria (MAU) in hypertensive outpatients attending a cardiologist or internist (i-SEARCH A) and to compare hypertensive outpatients with or without coronary artery disease (CAD; i-SEARCH B). A secondary objective was to establish a correlation between MAU and known cardiovascular risk factors. METHODS: i-SEARCH was an international, observational study. which enrolled consecutive outpatients with hypertension. Patients with reasons for a false-positive MAU test were excluded. Main outcome measures were the prevalence of MAU as assessed using a dipstick test, hypertension co-morbidities, co-medication and presence of known cardiovascular risk factors. RESULTS: A total of 21,050 patients, from 26 countries, were included in the primary analysis. Overall prevalence of MAU was 58.4% (men > women), although there was considerable variation in prevalence across countries and continents (maximum 71% in Vietnam/Indonesia; minimum 53% in Germany/Switzerland). In multivariate analyses, predictors of MAU were identified to be male gender, high waist circumference, systolic blood pressure >or= 120 mmHg, diastolic blood pressure >or= 100 mmHg, creatinine clearance >or= 50 ml/min, and the presence of diabetes, congestive heart failure, CAD, history of cerebral pathology, peripheral arterial disease, dyspnoea or palpitations. MAU was present more often in patients with CAD than in patients without. CONCLUSIONS: MAU is extremely common in hypertensive outpatients worldwide, especially in patients with known cardiovascular risk factors. Given its importance as a strong, early and independent marker of increased cardiovascular risk in hypertension, the results of i-SEARCH mandate more rigorous MAU screening of hypertensive patients in clinical practice.

Autologous tissues for dural grafting in children: a report of 56 cases.

BACKGROUND: Diverse materials have been used for dural closure, including grafts of cadaveric origin. Some 168 cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease have been reported following the implant of human dura mater. A few publications have addressed the use of dural grafts in children, but none has analyzed the feasibility of autologous tissues for this purpose. AIM: Since 1994, the authors have utilized autologous tissues for dural grafting in children undergoing neurosurgical procedures, aimed at studying the feasibility of its use in this age group. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We studied 56 children submitted to neurosurgical procedures who underwent an implant of a patch of autologous tissue for dural closure. Epidemiological, clinical, and neuroimaging data were processed using statistical methods. RESULTS: The study group was composed of 29 boys and 27 girls, with ages ranging from 1 month to 17 years (mean 7.6 years). The procedures corresponded to lesions at the posterior cranial fossa (n = 41), supratentorial cranial compartment (n = 12), and spine (n = 3). Seventy-five percent of the children had no complication. Four patients had adverse effects unrelated to dural grafting, while ten children had complications that might be associated with it. The most frequent complication was pseudomeningocele (n = 6), followed by infection (n = 3) and CSF leak (n = 1). Although hydrocephalus seemed to have an influence on the occurrence of complications, their incidence in patients without hydrocephalus did not differ statistically. CONCLUSIONS: Autologous grafts of fascia or pericranium can be safely used for dural reconstruction in children. Given the reported complications associated with the use of foreign materials for duraplasty, the authors recommend the use of autologous tissues for dural repair, reserving other types of dural grafts for cases in which its usage is unavoidable.

Discovery of a short-necked sauropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic period of Patagonia.

Sauropod dinosaurs are one of the most conspicuous groups of Mesozoic terrestrial vertebrates. They show general trends towards an overall increase in size and elongation of the neck, by means of considerable elongation of the length of individual vertebrae and a cervical vertebra count that, in some cases, increases to 19 (ref. 1). The long neck is a particular hallmark of sauropod dinosaurs and is usually regarded as a key feeding adaptation. Here we describe a new dicraeosaurid sauropod, from the latest Jurassic period of Patagonia, that has a particularly short neck. With a neck that is about 40% shorter than in other known dicraeosaurs, this taxon demonstrates a trend opposite to that seen in most sauropods and indicates that the ecology of dicraeosaurids might have differed considerably from that of other sauropods. The new taxon indicates that there was a rapid radiation and dispersal of dicraeosaurids in the Late Jurassic of the Southern Hemisphere, after the separation of Gondwana from the northern continents by the late Middle Jurassic.

A Jurassic mammal from South America.

The Jurassic period is an important stage in early mammalian evolution, as it saw the first diversification of this group, leading to the stem lineages of monotremes and modern therian mammals. However, the fossil record of Jurassic mammals is extremely poor, particularly in the southern continents. Jurassic mammals from Gondwanaland are so far only known from Tanzania and Madagascar, and from trackway evidence from Argentina. Here we report a Jurassic mammal represented by a dentary, which is the first, to our knowledge, from South America. The tiny fossil from the Middle to Late Jurassic of Patagonia is a representative of the recently termed Australosphenida, a group of mammals from Gondwanaland that evolved tribosphenic molars convergently to the Northern Hemisphere Tribosphenida, and probably gave rise to the monotremes. Together with other mammalian evidence from the Southern Hemisphere, the discovery of this new mammal indicates that the Australosphenida had diversified and were widespread in Gondwanaland well before the end of the Jurassic, and that mammalian faunas from the Southern Hemisphere already showed a marked distinction from their northern counterparts by the Middle to Late Jurassic.

La función diastólica regional está más conservada en el miocardio viable que en el no viable. Demostración mediante Doppler pulsado tisular realizado en condiciones basales / Regional Diastolic Function is More Preserved in Viable than Non-Viable Myocardium. Demonstration by Pulsed-Wave Doppler. Tissue Imaging in Basal Conditions

Introducción y objetivos. El objetivo del estudio fue analizar mediante Doppler pulsado tisular en condiciones basales las diferencias existentes en la función diastólica regional entre el miocardio viable y no viable. Pacientes y métodos. La población de estudio está formada por 21 pacientes con enfermedad coronaria de tres vasos y alteraciones de la contractilidad segmentaria, a los que se realizaron ecocardiograma transtorácico y Doppler pulsado tisular en condiciones basales y, por un investigador diferente, ecocardiograma de estrés con dobutamina. Resultados. Se estudiaron en total 322 segmentos, de los cuales 140 (43 por ciento) tenían una función sistólica deprimida. De estos 140 segmentos, 52 (37 por ciento) fueron clasificados como hipocinéticos, 80 (57 por ciento) como acinéticos y ocho (6 por ciento) como discinéticos. Durante la administración de dobutamina se observó una mejoría de la contractilidad (segmentos viables) en 67 de los 140 segmentos con disfunción sistólica (48 por ciento), mientras que los restantes 73 (52 por ciento) fueron considerados no viables. Los segmentos viables tenían una mayor velocidad máxima de la onda diastólica precoz e en comparación con los no viables (5,5 ñ 1,9 frente a 4,7 ñ 2,0 cm/s; p = 0,03). La proporción de segmentos con una relación e/a < 1 fue mayor entre los no viables (70 frente al 52 por ciento; p < 0,05). No existieron diferencias en relación con el tiempo de relajación isovolumétrica y la velocidad máxima de la onda a. Aunque la velocidad máxima de la onda sistólica s fue inferior en los segmentos no viables, las diferencias no fueron estadísticamente significativas. Conclusión. Los segmentos miocárdicos viables tienen una función diastólica regional menos alterada que los no viables cuando se estudian con Doppler pulsado tisular en condiciones basales (AU)

Regional Diastolic Function in Microvascular Angina Studied by Pulsed-Wave Doppler Tissue Imaging.

OBJECTIVES: Diastolic dysfunction is an early finding during myocardial ischemia. However, regional diastolic function has not been studied in patients with microvascular angina (MA). The purpose of this study was to assess the regional diastolic function in patients with MA through use of the new echocardiographic technique, pulsed-wave Doppler tissue imaging (DTI). METHODS: Regional diastolic function was studied by DTI in 81 myocardial segments of seven patients with MA and in 54 segments of six healthy control subjects. RESULTS: Myocardial segments in patients with MA had, in comparison with controls, an increased regional isovolumetric relaxation time (126 +/- 34 vs 99 +/- 34 msec, P < 0.0001), a higher e/a ratio (1.1 +/- 0.7 vs 0.8 +/- 0.3, P = 0.0048), and a lower peak velocity of the late diastolic wave a (6.9 +/- 2.9 vs 8.4 +/- 1.7 cm/msec, P = 0.0009). Moreover, peak velocity of systolic wave s was higher in patients with MA (5.8 +/- 1.4 vs 5.3 +/- 1.2 cm/msec, P = 0.0424). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with MA have an impaired regional diastolic function (an increased regional isovolumetric relaxation time and a lower a wave) and a higher velocity of the regional systolic wave s. These findings may have physiopathological implications.