1,720,955 research outputs found
Erythema Nodosum Leprosum as a Harbinger of Relapse in Multibacillary Leprosy: A Clinico-Histopathological Case Study
Get PDFBackground: Leprosy, a chronic granulomatous disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae, presents formidable long-term management challenges. In the post-elimination era, differentiating a true bacteriological relapse from a late-onset Erythema Nodosum Leprosum (ENL) reaction in patients who have completed multidrug therapy (MDT) is a critical diagnostic dilemma. Misdiagnosis can lead to inappropriate treatment, risking disease progression and irreversible nerve damage.
Case presentation: A 30-year-old male presented with a severe, systemic inflammatory illness two years after completing MDT for lepromatous leprosy. His symptoms included crops of painful, erythematous nodules, fever, and arthralgia. While clinically suggestive of a severe ENL reaction, a slit-skin smear revealed a paradoxically high bacterial index (BI) of +5 with a morphological index (MI) of 0%. A skin biopsy was performed for definitive diagnosis. Histopathology revealed a dual pathology: a diffuse infiltrate of foamy macrophages typical of lepromatous leprosy, alongside a dense neutrophilic panniculitis characteristic of ENL. Crucially, Fite-Faraco staining demonstrated vast numbers of intact, solid-staining acid-fast bacilli, providing unequivocal evidence of active bacterial proliferation.
Conclusion: This case demonstrates that a diagnostic algorithm integrating a high index of clinical suspicion with comprehensive bacteriological and histopathological methods is essential for accurately identifying relapse masked by ENL. The presence of viable bacilli confirms that ENL can be a direct clinical harbinger of relapse, mandating a dual therapeutic strategy that combines aggressive anti-inflammatory treatment with the immediate re-initiation of MDT
Peran Mikrobiom pada Sifilis
Get PDFSyphilis is a chronic sexually transmitted infection caused by Treponema pallidum, which can progress to neurosyphilis when it affects the central nervous system. Recently, the role of the human microbiome, the community of microorganisms living in the body has gained attention in understanding the pathogenesis of syphilis. The genital microbiota, particularly those dominated by Lactobacillus, help maintain mucosal balance and protect against infection. Imbalance in the microbiota, or dysbiosis, such as a decrease in Lactobacillus and an increase in anaerobic bacteria like Prevotella and Gardnerella, has been shown to raise the risk of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV and syphilis. In women, Lactobacillus maintains an acidic vaginal pH and suppresses inflammation, while the dominance of anaerobic bacteria can trigger proinflammatory cytokine production that promotes pathogen colonization. In men, a penile microbiota rich in anaerobes has also been linked to a higher risk of infection. Recent studies suggest that alterations in the gut microbiota may contribute to the progression of neurosyphilis, with increased Akkermansia levels associated with immune activation and inflammation. The complex interaction between the microbiome, immune system, and T. pallidum influences disease progression and treatment response. A deeper understanding of this relationship may lead to new strategies for preventing and managing syphilis.
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Get PDFWe 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
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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