1,721,058 research outputs found
Increased 90-day mortality in patients with acute heart failure with elevated neopterin: secondary results from the Biomarkers in Acute Heart Failure (BACH) study.
No full textIntroduction: Elevated cardiac troponin (cTn) levels are associated with adverse events in patients with chronic and acute decompensated heart failure. Neopterin,a moderator of cellular immune response, predicts future cardiac and vascular adverse events in patients with chronic coronary artery disease. Hypothesis: The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of neopterin in the setting of acute heart failure by itself and in relation to troponin. Methods: The biomarkers in AHF (BACH trial) was a prospective,15 center, international study of 1641 patients presenting to the ED with dyspnea. A secondary end-point of this study was to test for non inferiority of neopterin versus troponin for predicting outcome over a period of 90 days and to assess whether neopterin adds predictive value for all cause mortality at 90 days to a clinical model with troponin. Results: In a population of 1641 patients, 511 had a final diagnosis of HF and data on troponin levels. Neopterin (HR 3.052; p = .004) and troponin (HR 4.083; p = .003) are both independent predictors of 90 day mortality. When both biomarkers were elevated,mortality substantially increased (HR 7.341; p = .000). In a multivariate analyses including gender, diabetes, third heart sound and diastolic blood pressure neopterin remained an independent predictor of death (p = .004). Conclusion: The novel immune/inflammatory biomarker, neopterin, shows indipendent prognostic value in patients presenting with acute decompensated heart failure. In patients with low troponin, elevated levels of neopterin portend an increased 90 day mortality. These findings suggest an important prognostic role for neopterin
Emergency department perspectives on B-type natriuretic peptide utility
No full textIn the emergency department (ED), patients do not present with a diagnosis. Rather they manifest a symptom for which the physician must determine the most probable cause. It is the sorting of possibly acutely fatal diagnoses that is unique to the practice of emergency medicine. Unfortunately, the historically available rapid diagnostic tools lack both sensitivity and specificity. This creates risk for the acutely ill patient in whom either a delayed or erroneous diagnosis can be associated with a startling increase in mortality. B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) assessment in the ED is a valuable adjunct for increasing the accuracy of the initial clinical impression. This allows early outcome-improving interventions to proceed with greater certainty. Finally, as a prognostic marker indicative of illness severity, knowledge of BNP levels can improve the accuracy of disposition decisions
Usefulness of Serial Assessment of Natriuretic Peptides in the Emergency Department for patients with Acute Decompensated Heart failure
No full textThe value of natriuretic peptides, both B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and
N-terminal prohormone brain natriuretic peptide (NTproBNP), for determining
diagnosis, severity, and prognosis of emergency department (ED) patients with
acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) has been well documented. Emerging
data support the hypothesis that repeated natriuretic peptide determinations in
the acute phase of ADHF may assist in confirming the diagnosis, monitoring drug
therapy, and evaluating the adequacy of patient stabilization. Data from the
authors’ group demonstrate that in patients admitted to the ED for acute dyspnea,
serial NTproBNP measurement at admission and 4, 12, and 24 hours later was
useful in confirming the diagnosis of ADHF compared with patients with chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease. Moreover, in the same patients receiving intensive
intravenous diuretic therapy, there was a progressive reduction of NTproBNP
blood levels from hospitalization to discharge (P<.001), accompanied by clinical
improvement and stabilization of heart failure. More recently, the authors also demonstrated
that in ADHF patients improving with diuretics, a progressive reduction
in BNP levels was observed, starting 24 hours after ED admission and continuing
until discharge. Comparing BNP and NTproBNP, there was a significant correlation
between NTproBNP and BNP levels but not between NTproBNP’s and BNP’s
percent variation compared with baseline. In ADHF, serial ED measurements of
BNP are useful for monitoring the effects of treatment. A reduction in BNP from
admission to discharge is indicative of clinical improvement
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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