1,721,034 research outputs found
Special Issue “Managing Dry Eye Disease over Time: An Italian Consensus Conference”
Full text linkDry eye disease (DED) is a chronic, progressive, highly prevalent condition affecting 5 to 33% of the global adult population [1]. After the first comprehensive definition was published in 1995 on the basis of consensus from the National Eye Institute [2], it was realized that the complexity of DED tended to be underestimated and therefore the disease underdiagnosed. Two major steps forward were taken in 2007 [3] and 2017 [4], and the results were published in the reports of DEWS and DEWS II of the TFOS, respectively. Nowadays, it is clear that DED affects not only tears, but the entire ocular surface system, and that three main pathogenic factors, namely tear instability, inflammation and damage to the epithelia, play a key role for its development; these factors can be associated, as a cause or as a consequence, with eyelid abnormalities and nerve dysfunction [5].
Another important aspect of DED is related to the symptoms referred by the patients that can significantly impair patients’ quality of life and daily activities [6,7]. Furthermore, after the first diagnosis and the initial therapeutic program, patients feel alone in the face of a disease that will have ups and downs over time with sudden flare-ups. To improve patients’ satisfaction, it is essential not only to prescribe the proper therapy but also to monitor the course of signs and symptoms over time in order to adapt the treatment according to the response with the aim of avoiding the chronicization of the disease [8].
Counseling, patient education and doctor–patient alliance are important tools that can promote therapeutic efficacy, which is crucial to guarantee adherence to therapy and a reduction in symptoms [9].
In the Italian context, clinicians felt the need to define and share a standard approach to the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of DED. In order to address this unmet need, a group of ophthalmologists who contend with ocular surface disease issues on a daily basis (“Italian Dry Eye Consensus Group”) has worked together in creating a new project named “Eye Care 4 Care”. This expert group convened to a consensus on practical algorithms for providing treatment recommendations, reached by means of a Delphi consensus process, in four different scenarios: (i) “DED and inflammation”; (ii) “DED and eyelid”; (iii) “DED and surgery”; (iv) “DED and treatment compliance”. Despite every scenario being different, creating some algorithms will assist in coming to the right answer over time. In order to respect the complexity and the numerous settings in which the condition of DED can be found, the scientific data obtained by evidence available in the literature and also the clinical experience of “real life” have been considered through an extended and shared discussion. Monitoring the status of the patient over time can show if there is a trend of improvement or worsening, and if the target is reached or not. This will allow tailoring the treatment according to the different clinical conditions presented by a single patient at each time point. It is intended that these algorithms will be useful in a clinical setting for general ophthalmologists.
There are still many fundamental questions that need to be addressed in order to improve DED treatment effectiveness over time and therefore patients’ satisfaction. This Special Issue will describe in detail all the four algorithms proposed by the Italian Dry Eye Consensus Group along with other open issues related to the management over time of DED
Dry eye in mind: Exploring the relationship between sleep and ocular surface diseases
No full textPurpose: Dry Eye Disease (DED) is regarded as the most common ocular surface disease worldwide, entailing symptoms that have a major impact on the physical and psychological well-being of DED patients. In this context, the impact of sleep quality on DED has recently attracted attention. Indeed, although little is known about the mechanisms underlying the relationship between sleep and ocular surface diseases, recent evidence suggests that a reciprocal relationship exists between sleep quality and DED. Aim of the study was to investigate such relationship by means of both survey-based and instrumental analysis in a large population. Patients and methods: The present cross-sectional study included 1182 DED patients who completed the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) and the Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) questionnaires. Moreover, tear break-up time (TBUT) and ocular surface staining (OSS) data of included patients were collected by physicians. Results: According to the findings of this study, in DED patients, the severity of dry eye symptoms and signs, assessed by OSDI score, TBUT, and ocular surface staining, is associated with more severe insomnia symptoms. Furthermore, higher severity of DED symptoms seems to be associated with the occurrence of nocturnal awakenings rather than with problems in falling asleep. Conclusions: Present work contributes to the understanding of the complex relationship between DED and insomnia by showing that in a large population of DED patients, the more severe the insomnia, the more severe the DED symptoms and signs
Surgical treatment of dacryocystitis by using a venous catheter
No full textPurpose: Aim of this work is to highlight the advantages of a new surgical technique performed over 15 patients affected dacryocystitis and treated by using a venous catheter. The arrangement of a 30 mm venous catheter used at the end of a dacryocystectomy (DCT) was performed in 15 patients with dacryocystitis. The venous catheter was removed at 30 days after the surgery. The use of the venous catheter allows washing the lacrimal drainage system, reducing the risk of postoperative infections and supports the recanalization of the lacrimal drainage system 30 days after surgery. The presented cases demonstrated how the technique is easy and it reduces the possibility of the post-operative infection. It could be performed under regional anesthesia. Furthermore, after the surgery the recanalization of the lacrimal drainage system with a significant reduction of the epiphora in 6 months after surgery has been observed
Improved Doppler detection of proximal left anterior descending coronary artery stenosis after intravenous injection of a lung-crossing contrast agent: A transesophageal Doppler echocardiographic study
No full textGoing 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
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