Several illnesses such as paradoxical embolism, decompression sickness, migraine and cerebral ischemia are characterized by bubbles which might cross the septum wall between left and right atrium. In this study, we aimed to detect bubbles on echocardiographic frames which are segmented automatically using Snakes method. In recent studies, analyzes are done on fixed ROIs and PFO grading as well. We conclude that our approach would give more accurate results for bubble detection and counting by taking account into entire left atrium (LA) areas.

The existence of a right-to-left shunt may increase the likelihood of micro-embolism by allowing a flux of bubbles under hyperbaric conditions. The aim of the study was to measure the relationship between these shunts and bubbles in 10 consecutive subjects using trans-thoracic and trans-esophageal echocardiography...

"CADDY - Cognitive Autonomous Diving Buddy" is an FP7 project that that is devoted to developing a cognitive underwater robotic system that will help divers during their activities in this hazardous environment. The envisioned resulting system will play a threefold role similar to those that a human buddy diver should have: buddy "observer", buddy "slave", and buddy "guide". During the second year of the project, validation trials were organized in Croatia with the purpose of testing all developed algorithms that will enable the three roles of the CADDY system. The trials were structured in five experiments. This paper is devoted to providing a concise overview of the conducted experiments and major results.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To determine if the normobaric oxygen paradox (NOP) was effective in increasing reticulocyte count and reducing postoperative requirements for allogeneic red blood cell transfusion after traumatic hip surgery.

Background: The physiological and pathophysiological mechanisms that govern diving, both self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA) and breath-hold diving (BH-diving), are in large part well known, even if there are still many unknown aspects, in particular about cell metabolism during BH-diving. The scope of this study was to investigate changes in glycemia, insulinemia, and the catecholamine response to BH-diving, to better understand if the insulin-stimulated glucose uptake mechanism is involved in cellular metabolism in this sport. Methods: Twenty male experienced healthy breath-hold divers were studied. Anthropometric information was obtained. Glycemia, insulinemia, and catecholamine response were investigated before and after the series of BH-diving. Results