Cloning and sequencing of the genes that encode the neuromuscular junction receptors revealed that embryonic muscle receptors result from the assembly of five subunits in the stoichiometry α2, α, γ, and δ, while adult receptors are made from α2, β, ε, and δ.15 Sequence homologies and low-stringency hybridization soon

led researchers to clone a series of genes CHIR-98014 mouse encoding for proteins that resemble those of the neuromuscular junction receptors, but displaying significant differences. To date, 12 genes encoding for α2 to α10 and β2 to β4 have been isolated in vertebrates and their chromosomic localization identified. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Following an international agreement, the nomenclature between α and β subunits was made according to specific sequences of these proteins, with a subunits showing the highest degree of homology with their muscle counterpart and the Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical presence of

two adjacent cysteines in the N-terminal extracellular domain.16 It is widely accepted that nAChRs result, as the muscle receptors, from the assembly of five subunits, each of which spans the membrane four times (Figure 1B).15,17,18 This basic structural feature is common to a series of ligand-gated channels, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical which include the serotonin receptor 5-HT3, zinc-activated protein (ZAC), the glycine receptors, and the γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptors GABAA and GABAC. The large extracellular domain comprises the ligand-binding

site and the ionic pore lies in the center of the assembly. Each of the five subunits lines the pore by its second transmembrane domain. Despite the lack of a full crystal structure of the nAChRs, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical it is believed that the natural ligand ACh or nicotine binds at the interface between two adjacent subunits in the extracellular domain. Thus, the contribution of two adjacent subunits to Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the formation of the ligand-binding domain implies that both subunits will define the physiological and pharmacological properties of the resulting receptor. Although some subunits such as α7 can assemble in a homomeric manner, most receptors result from the heteromeric assembly of at least two subunits, for instance α4β2. In the case of heteromeric receptors, a further complexity can arise ADAMTS5 for triplet combinations, such as α4α6β2, etc. This gives rise to a wider diversity of the receptor function, which correlates with the pattern of expression of the different subunits. Binding of an agonist stabilizes the receptor in the active open state and causes cations to rapidly diffuse across the minute ionic pore. Significant differences in physiological properties, in terms of sensitivity to the agonist and time course of response, can be observed between different subtypes of nAChRs.

The N100 reduction might be the result of an overlapping component, the processing negativity, which is elicited during selective attention paradigms and appears to be reduced in schizophrenia patients. A reduction in processing negativity is consistent with the deficits in selective attention that have been proposed

to account for some schizophrenic symptomatology. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical To date, the only endophenotype whose linkage analysis has pointed to a specific candidate mechanism for neuronal dysfunction in schizophrenia comes from the work on the sensory gating dysfunction by the group led by Freedman.5 The paradigm used was to present to the subject pairs of identical stimuli. Normal subjects diminish the amplitudes of the P50 wave response to Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the second stimulus, whereas schizophrenic

patients consistently have a deficit in P50 inhibition.79 This deficit is present in the unaffected parents of schizophrenic probands, who have themselves an ancestral family history of schizophrenia, but not in parents without such histories.80 Furthermore, the families of early-onset schizophrenia show bilineal inheritance of the P50 inhibitory deficit, ie, both parents are affected.81 Thus, bilineal inheritance may be related to more severe and earlier illness onset. Animal studies Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical showed that the inhibition of the second stimulus is mediated through cholinergic activation Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of hippocampal interneurons mediated via α7 nicotinic receptors. In schizophrenics and their relatives, nicotine transiently normalizes the deficit in P50 inhibition,82 as predicted from the animal model. The gene encoding the α7 nicotinic receptor is localized in the region 15q14, a region of chromosome 15 found Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical to be linked to schizophrenia in several genome scans. Freedman et al37 showed that the P50 defect maps to the site of the α7 nicotinic receptor gene with a lod score of 5.3 under an autosomal find protocol dominant model. Replication of these data, identification of the molecular

abnormality, and determination of the role of and the abnormality in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia are necessary as the next steps. Eye movement Hundreds of studies have described the characteristic eye-movement dysfunction (HMD) in schizophrenic patients (for a review, see reference 83). This smooth pursuit dysfunction is stable over time,84 present during symptom remission,85 and familial, as it is found in almost 50% of unaffected relatives.85 Schizophrenic patients and their relatives also demonstrate a deficiency in their ability to inhibit reflex saccades to the target.86 Antisaccades EMD is found only in relatives of schizophrenic patients who themselves have increased rates of errors. These data suggest that abnormal smooth pursuit and saccade dysfunction are familial.

The approval of OTG by the FDA was largely attributed to the results of this study, which have not yet been published. The Evolution of Oxybutynin The evolution of oxybutynin

has resulted in new formulations that offer patients improved tolerability with a lower incidence of anticholinergic side effects and enhanced dosing options. OXY-ER significantly reduces the incidence of dry mouth associated with OXY-IR, and provides convenient once daily dosing. OXY-TDS, applied twice weekly, gives patients a transdermal option Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and anticholinergic side effects similar to placebo. Oxybutynin chloride topical gel similarly provides a topical therapy for OAB, which may be preferable to a pill for many patients. In addition, the favorable metabolite-to-parent (N-DEO/oxybutynin) plasma concentration associated with OTG is expected to be associated with excellent tolerability. The less occlusive gel is also expected to have reduced adverse skin events due to the presence of glycerin and the absence Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of the Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical skin permeation enhancer triacetin.

Ectopic ureters are rare and occur in about 1 of 1900 live births.1 Over 85% of ectopic ureters are associated with duplicated systems and most commonly present in females. Ectopic ureters present 2 to 12 times less frequently in males than in females, and in males are most commonly associated with a

single collecting system.2 Ectopic ureters inserting into the prostatic urethra often present with obstruction and/or urinary tract infections. Few cases of ectopic ureters entering into the prostatic urethra as an incidental finding in men undergoing radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer have been reported in the literature.3,4 This case report describes Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical a patient with prostate

cancer and an asymptomatic upper pole ectopic ureter inserting into the prostatic urethra associated with normal functioning renal parenchyma lifescience demonstrated on preoperative mercaptoacetyltriglycine (MAG-3) Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical renogram, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and computed tomography (CT). We discuss the treatment plan for this patient and give an overview of ectopic ureters. Case Presentation A 66-year-old man presented with a nodule at the right base of the prostate on digital rectal examination. The patient’s serum prostate-specific antigen Carnitine palmitoyltransferase II level had risen from 0.92 ng/mL in September 2004 to 2.2 ng/mL in December 2007. A transrectal ultrasound (TRUS)-guided biopsy demonstrated adenocarcinoma of the prostate with Gleason score 6 (3 + 3) disease found in 30% of 1 core obtained from the right lateral base (clinical stage T2a disease). The patient reported nocturia 2 times per night without other lower urinary tract symptoms, and no history of urinary tract infections or nephrolithiasis. The patient’s American Urological Association Symptom Score was 3.

This was thought to be secondary to the increased relative hydrophobicity of the former peptide construct. All other tissues analyzed demonstrated no significant difference in the magnitude of uptake of these peptides (data not shown) [21]. The CTT2-peptide was thus selected for further studies given its more rapid hepatic clearance. Figure 4 Hepatic

accumulation of 125I-CTT2-peptides in normal mice. Liver accumulation of peptides per gram of tissue in normal mice (n = 5) relative to muscle (control). All values are expressed as the percentage of the control (% control) ± SD. In OV-90 xenograft models, substantially higher Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical uptake of 125I-CTT2-peptide was measured in all organs/tissues (Figure 5), particularly in the xenograft, with tumor-to-blood ratios ~23 detected at 3 hrs postinjection (p.i.). This coupled with the poor prognosis of this disease in humans, showed the potential to improve treatment response using CTT2-peptide targeted

delivery, and the need to ensure controlled and sustained drug release led us to extend this model to investigate Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical tumor uptake with micellar and liposomal Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical formulations (Selleck Selisistat CTT2-micelles and CTT2-liposomes). The amount of CTT2-bound peptide available for liposomal targeting activity was found to be 500 based on the measured average size and surface area of the resulting peptide-bound liposomal product by dynamic light scattering and the aforementioned reaction conditions. Figure 5 Tissue distribution of a single dose of 125I-CTT2-peptide in immunosuppressed OV-90 xenograft mice. Blood and major organs/tissues were collected at 0.5hr and 3hrs p.i. 125I-CTT2-peptide (40μg/mouse, n = 5) and their … For doxorubicin-containing liposomes, doxorubicin leakage Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical after peptide attachment was assessed by comparing free and liposomal doxorubicin on the basis Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of fluorometric analysis. Leakage was found to be minimal, with leakage before and after incorporation averaging 4.5% and 4.2%, respectively. Both OV-90 and mucinous ovarian carcinomas

(A2780) were thus selected as xenograft models for subsequent nanoformulation studies. In OV-90 tumor mice, clear targeting of CTT2-micelles was observed, reaching maximum values of 17.6% of the injected dose per gram (%ID/g) of tumor at 6hrs p.i. (Figure 6). Figure 6 Tissue distribution of 125I-CTT2-micelle in OV-90 tumor mice. %ID/g values after i.v. injection of CTT2-micelles (200μg/mouse, Non-specific serine/threonine protein kinase n = 5). All values are expressed as mean ± SD. Doxorubicin concentrations (μg doxorubicin per gram dry tissue), in the form of CTT2-SL (targeted) and SL (nontargeted Caelyx/Doxil) liposomes, were measured as a function of time p.i. in A2780 xenografts, as shown in Figure 7. Doxorubicin was delivered more efficiently and at a faster rate to tumors using CTT2-SL liposomal formulations compared to Caelyx, with significantly elevated tumoral levels of doxorubicin observed 3 days after drug injection.

Table IV. Sensitivity and specificity of positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) as a screen for depression. Using these cutoff scores, it was determined that 73% of persons with any depression had some form of affective disturbance (ie, high NA and low PA; high NA and high PA). Among persons with any depression with some form of affective disturbance, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical 33% reported experiencing both low PA and high NA. Eighty-two percent of persons with major depression reported some affective disorder and 52% reported experiencing low PA and high NA (Table V). Table V. Cross-tabulations of positive affect (PA) and

negative affect (NA) responses among persons with any depression and major depression. In addition to being a moderately good identifier of depression, both PA and NA contributed to the prediction of

depression. Logistic regression PDGFR alpha mutation analyses indicated that high NA and low PA (anhedonia) Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical are associated with risk of depression after 1 year (model X2=12.91, P=0.002). Low PA increases the odds of depression by 15% (Exp B=0.87, P=0.02) and high NA increases odds of depression by 38% (Exp B=1.38, F=0.01). Low PA and NA are also moderate indicators of treatment effect. When Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical PA, NA, and the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression1“ were used to track changes among persons receiving Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical pharmacological treatment for depression. Changes in Hamilton scores were correlated with both changes in PA (r=-0.43, P=0.002) and changes in NA(r=0.40, P=0.004). Discussion Short measures of PA and NA can easily be utilized in the clinical setting. Subjects can complete them quickly and understand immediately the reasons for wishing to use them repeatedly. The above analyses demonstrate their concurrent validities and their moderately good predictive ability. PA

in particular assesses attributes not often included Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical in typical assessment for psychopathology. Nature Medicine In particular, our findings indicate that the absence of PA is of equal importance to the presence of NA in identifying patients with clinically significant depression. We suggest that these brief parallel measures might be particularly useful when the course of illness is being followed over time and when increasing the prevalence of positive experiences is one of the explicit treatment goals. In conclusion, PA as well as NA are salient indicators of depression, and may tap into depression in older populations who may underreport depressive symptoms.8 PA and NA scales are a simple and conclusive way to measure affective states over time that may provide salient information regarding the ongoing course and prognosis of depression.

RefSeq (mRNA) is the official number of the most relevant gene product. Exon no. is the number of exons. mRNA (ORF) is the length of the mRNA and within brackets the length of the open reading frame also counting the first stop codon.

Disease symbol (OMIM) indicates the official name of the associated disorders, the symbol and the number as in the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (3). Inh indicates the disease inheritance AR = autosomal recessive; AD = autosomal dominat, XR = X-linked recessive, ecc. Variants (unique) is the number of total variants (unique) reported in the Leiden database (L) Human Genome Mutation Database (H) or other Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical specifica databases

(O). subst% indicates the percentage of substitutions of mutated alleles found in patients: this may be important to address the strategy for mutation scanning.

DMD is an X-linked recessive disorder, primarily characterized Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical by progressive muscle weakness and wasting. Mutations in dystrophin gene are the prime cause for muscle degeneration associated with DMD (1). Normally dystrophin interacts Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical with several members of the dystrophin glycoprotein complex, which forms a mechanical as well as signaling link from the extracellular matrix to the cytoskeleton (2). Mutations in dystrophin result in membrane damage, allowing massive infiltration of immune Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical cells, selleck kinase inhibitor chronic inflammation, necrosis, and severe muscle degeneration (3). Normally, muscle cells possess the capacity to regenerate in response to injury signals (4), however, this ability is lost in DMD, presumably due to an exhaustion of satellite cells

during ongoing degeneration and regeneration cycles (5). Although dystrophin mutations represent the primary cause of DMD, it is the secondary processes Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical involving persistent inflammation and impaired regeneration that likely exacerbate disease progression (6). This results in chronic inflammation and severe skeletal muscle degeneration, where the extent of muscle fibrosis contributes to Rebamipide disease severity. Elevated numbers of inflammatory cells are known to be present at the sites of muscle injuries to interact with cytokine and growth factor signaling (7–9). It is evident that dystrophic muscles undergo increased oxidative stress and altered calcium homeostasis, which may contribute to myofiber loss by triggering both necrosis and apoptosis (10). In humans, DNA-fragmentation and expression of apoptosis-related proteins indicate that apoptosis plays a role in muscle degeneration and regeneration in muscular dystrophies (11). Muscle tissue repair is a complex biological process that crucially involves activation of stem cells.

Over the past 20 years, several patients with ALS and LIS have been trained with BCI not only in research laboratories, but also in their home. Birbaumer et al. (1999) first developed a communication system for completely paralyzed patients with ALS that employed SCP to drive an electronic spelling device. Two patients were trained to produce voluntarily

positive and negative SCPs and were provided by visual feedback. After achieving at least 75% control, they began to use the spelling device, in which letters were presented on a screen. Patients Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical selected a letter by progressively reducing letter strings containing the desired letter by creating SCPs after its appearance. Many other studies described BCI systems based on self-regulation of SCPs in patients with physical impairment, thus supporting that these patients are able to learn to control changes in their SCPs accurately in a sufficient way to operate an electronic Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical spelling device (Kubler et al. 2001a, b; Wolpaw et al. 2002; Birbaumer et al. 2003). Although letter selection is slow—1 min for 1,

2 letters—it is reliable and precise enough to allow patients to communicate. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Other researchers did extensive experiments using BCI based on SMR rather than on SCP. Wolpaw and McFarland (2004) demonstrated that a SMR-based BCI provides subjects with spinal cord injuries with multidimensional control of a cursor movement on a computer screen that could be ATM Kinase Inhibitor in vitro learned in a few sessions of training. The speed, accuracy, and learning performance were comparable to those of invasive Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical BCIs. Kübler et al. (2005) showed that four patients with ALS learned to operate a BCI with rhythms recorded over sensorimotor cortex and suggested that this kind of BCI system could help ALS patients maintain a fairly good QoL. To confirm these encouraging results, other studies have confronted

patients with various types of BCI to provide them with a system that Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical works best for each individual subject. In a study investigating the effects of psychological state and motivation on BCI performance in ALS, Nijboer et al. (2010) made a comparison between SMR- and P300-BCI paradigms in order to assess which paradigm could be used by most patients. Unoprostone A higher information transfer rate with the P300-BCI, than with the SMR-BCI was found. Moreover, this information transfer rate could be achieved by patients after only one session with P300-based BCI, whereas the use of SMR-BCI required more extensive training (10 training session). These results support the hypothesis that P300 BCI requires no learning, while SMR regulation is a skill that has to be learned by training. Therefore, P300-BCI seems to be superior to the SMR-BCI for quick and reliable communication. Other studies evaluated the effectiveness of BCI systems that operate by detecting a P300 signal.

When expressed in HL-1 atrial cardiomyocytes, enhanced cellular excitability was observed in the form of spontaneous action potential depolarizations and a lower threshold for action potential firing as compared to wild-type cells. Collectively, these studies suggest that gain-of-function mutations within SCN5A are associated with AF. The existing evidence suggests that SCN5A gain-of-function mutations predispose to AF by enhancing cellular hyperexcitability. The depolarizing shift in steady-state inactivation increases the probability that the channel will be in the open conformation and capable of conducting current.46 This alteration in the gating of the Nav1.5-mediated current #learn more keyword# will

presumably result in

a predisposition for cells to reach threshold potential and fire, consistent with enhanced automaticity. This Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical increase in focal discharges has the potential to serve as the trigger for AF. In addition, Nav1.5 channels have recently been identified in the autonomic ganglia that surround the pulmonary veins.47 Mutations within SCN5A may therefore result in neuronal hyperexcitability that may trigger AF through a parasympathetic pathway and contribute to the rapidly firing ectopic foci observed in the region of the pulmonary veins in Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical some patients with the arrhythmia. Mechanistic Subclass of AF 5: ANP Modulation of Atrial Electrophysiology The most recent gene to be associated with AF does not implicate an ion channel but instead involves a circulating hormone, the atrial natriuretic Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical peptide (ANP). Although known to be important in cardiac physiology, ANP

had been largely viewed as cardioprotective in the setting of heart failure.48 It was known, however, to be capable of modulating the electrical activities of the heart, and there were reports of its effects on specific ion channels.49, 50 However, little work had been done on ANP in the context of AF, and previous studies examining ANP levels as a biomarker in AF had been negative.51 Linkage analysis of a Caucasian family of northern European ancestry with autosomal dominant Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical AF mapped the causative locus to the small arm of chromosome 1 (1p36-35).52 Review of the genes within this region revealed the presence of NPPA, the gene encoding ANP, and subsequent sequencing revealed a two base-pair deletion in exon 3 that resulted in a frameshift associated with loss Farnesyltransferase of the stop codon. Extension of the reading frame results in an elongated peptide that is 40 amino acids in length relative to the wild-type 28 amino acid length. The deletion was present in all of the affected family members but absent in unaffected family members and 560 control patients. Functional studies involving an isolated rat whole-heart model suggested that the mutant ANP resulted in shortened action potential duration and reduced effective refractory period, although the mechanism was not entirely clear.

1983), improved detection of weak stimuli (Frens and Van Opstal 1995; Driver and Spence 1998; McDonald et al. 2000), and improved AMP-activated protein kinase pathway sensory-perception of illusory effects such as the ventriloquist or McGurk illusions (Howard and Templeton 1966; McGurk and MacDonald 1976). Human and animal studies have shown that the mere presence of additional sensory input even when it is irrelevant for performance of a task can enhance neural Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical excitability in the attended sensory modality (Calvert et al. 1997; Macaluso

et al. 2000, 2002; Calvert 2001; Foxe et al. 2002; Kayser et al. 2005, 2007; Pekkola et al. 2006; Lehmann et al. 2006; Lakatos et al. 2007; Meehan and Staines 2009), suggesting that interactions between modality-specific cortical representations exist. By contrast, other studies have shown crossmodal enhancement in modality-specific sensory cortex only occurs when both stimuli events are relevant for behavior (Dionne et al. 2010, 2013). These findings suggest that crossmodal processing is likely governed Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical by both bottom-up sensory-sensory interactions and top-down attentional mechanisms in order to allow for the selection, amplification, and integration of sensory input relevant for initiating goal-oriented responses. Bottom-up interactions can occur when salient

stimuli from an unattended sensory modality influence neural excitability in the attended modality, while top-down processing occurs when attention is voluntarily directed toward relevant Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical stimuli in the presence of environmental distracters. However, while both these attentional mechanisms can modulate neural responses in modality-specific

sensory cortex, it remains unclear how these attentional mechanisms Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical interact during sensory processing of crossmodal stimuli. Neurophysiological research in the primary auditory cortex of monkeys has provided evidence that sensory-to-sensory interactions exist. Recent studies have shown that neural responses in regionally distinct areas of the primary auditory cortex are enhanced when visual and/or tactile stimuli are paired with auditory stimuli (Kayser Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical et al. 2005, 2007). Lakatos et al. (2007) showed that presentation of somatosensory stimuli increased auditory neural responses when the two stimuli were simultaneously combined versus when the auditory stimulus was presented in isolation. Furthermore, Bizley et al. (2007) reported a 15% neuronal increase in the ferret primary auditory cortex following simultaneous presentation of visuo-auditory nature biotechnology stimuli (Bizley et al. 2007). Neuroimaging studies in humans complement the sensory-to-sensory interactions reported in animal findings by showing that the presence of crossmodal input can modulate neural excitability in modality-specific sensory cortices. For example, several functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have reported increased blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) responses in modality-specific cortices due to the mere presence of stimuli from another modality.

Despite strong clinical evidence in favor of the use of BIMA grafts, their use in current practice remains disappointingly low, being around 5% of patients in the USA and fewer than 10% in Europe. In an effort to add more scientific data to the debate of SIMA or BIMA grafting, the Arterial Revascularization Trial (ART) randomized 3,102 patients in 28 centers in seven countries.19

The 1-year outcomes showed 30-day mortalities of just over 1% in both groups and just over 2% at 1 year, with no significant difference in the incidence of stroke, myocardial infarction, and repeat revascularization (i.e. safety end-point), which were all Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical around 2%. This clearly demonstrated that there was no increase in mortality Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical or myocardial infarction with BIMA grafts. Furthermore the use of a second IMA graft added 23 minutes to the operative procedure which in itself took 3–4 hours. The one note of caution was that there was indeed an increase in sternal wound reconstruction Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical from 0.6% in the

SIMA group to 1.9% in the BIMA group, i.e. an absolute difference of 1.3% or a number needed to harm of 78 patients. However, it is noteworthy that while one-quarter of all patients in the ART Trial had diabetes almost half the patients requiring sternal wound reconstruction had diabetes. It is highly likely that with more judicious patient selection (avoiding BIMA grafts in obese diabetics or those with impaired lung function) and more precise harvesting techniques (skeletonization rather Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical than pedicle to preserve collateral circulation)20 the incidence of sternal wound Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical reconstruction would be significantly lower. While the results of recent trials of CABG versus stents in general populations (such as the SYNTAX Trial) and in diabetics (the FREEDOM Trial) confirm the significant superiority of CABG over stents in terms of superior survival and freedom

from subsequent myocardial infarction or repeat revascularization, the low use of BIMA grafts in current practice is a poor reflection of optimal surgical therapy. The recommendations in PF-04691502 cell line guidelines support the use of more arterial grafts during CABG,21,22 and the National Societies Pharmacological Reviews of Cardiothoracic Surgery should give increased recognition to and promote more use of BIMA grafts. OFF-PUMP SURGERY For almost three decades there has been controversy as to the potential benefits of off-pump CABG in relation to on-pump CABG. The initial rationale for off-pump CABG was mainly driven by economic considerations in developing countries where the economic cost of cardiopulmonary bypass made CABG an unrealistic proposition in many patients.