1,720,971 research outputs found
L' immunocomplesso SCCA-IgM come marker prognostico del carcinoma esofago-cardiale
No full textIntroduction. Esophageal cancer is often diagnosed at an advanced stage, and has a poor prognosis. To date, no biomarkers with high sensitivity and specificity for esophageal carcinoma are available that could be used for early diagnosis.
Aims and Methods. Aim of the study was to evaluate the presence of circulating SCCA-IgM immunocomplexes in the serum of patients diagnosed to have carcinoma of the esophagus and cardia, and to identify possible correlations with clinical and tumor features.
SCCA-IgM levels were measured by ELISA assay (Hepa-IC, Xeptagen S.p.A.) in the serum of 92 untreated patients with squamous cell carcinoma or adenocarcinoma of the esophagus and cardia. Positivity for SCCA-IgM was defined using a cut off level of 120 U/ml. The results obtained were compared to clinical and histological variables correlated to prognosis.
Results. Overall, SCCA-IgM immunocomplexes were positive in the serum of 13/92 patients (14,1%). The percentage of positivity was significantly higher in patients with lower clinical TNM stage (stage 0-1 vs stage 2-3-4: 33,3% vs 9,4%; p= 0,01); a higher percentage of positivity was found also in patients with lower pathological TNM stage, although the difference did not reach statistical significance (stage 0-1 vs stage 2-3-4: 29,4% vs 13,6%; p=0,26). No correlation was found between serum SCCA-IgM level and other clinical and histological variables.
Conclusion. Serum SCCA-IgM immunocomplexes were more frequently found in patients with an early stage cancer of the esophagus and cardia.Introduzione. Il carcinoma dell'esofago è spesso diagnosticato in fase avanzata ed ha una prognosi infausta. Attualmente non sono disponibili marcatori di diagnosi precoce con alta sensibilità e specificità .
Scopo dello studio e metodi. Scopo del presente studio è di valutare la presenza dell'immunocomplesso SCCA-IgM nel siero di pazienti affetti da carcinoma esofageo e del cardias al momento della diagnosi e di identificare una eventuale correlazione clinica con diverse caratteristiche della malattia neoplastica.
Mediante metodica ELISA indiretto (Hepa-IC, Xeptagen S.p.A) è stato effettuato il dosaggio sierico dell'immunocomplesso SCCA-IgM in 92 pazienti con diagnosi istologica di carcinoma squamoso o adenocarcinoma dell'esofago e del cardias, al momento della diagnosi, prima di qualsiasi trattamento oncologico. La positività per il dosaggio sierico di SCCA-IgM è stata definita per valori superiori al cut-off di 120 U/ml. I risultati del dosaggio sono stati confrontati con le variabili cliniche e istologiche correlate con la prognosi.
Risultati. 13/92 pazienti (14,1%) sono risultati positivi al dosaggio sierico dell'immunocomplesso SCCA-IgM. La positività è risultata superiore nei pazienti con stadio clinico di malattia più precoce rispetto a quelli in uno stadio clinico più avanzato (stadio 0-1 vs stadio 2-3-4: 33,3% vs 9,4 p= 0,01) e nei pazienti con stadio patologico più precoce rispetto a quelli con stadio patologico più avanzato (stadio 0-1 vs stadio 2-3-4: 29.4% vs 13.6%; p=0.26). Non si è riscontrata alcuna differenza tra i livelli sierici di SCCA-IgM e le altre variabili cliniche ed istologiche studiate.
Conclusione. L'immunocomplesso SCCA-IgM circolante risulta significativamente piu' presente, al momento della diagnosi, negli stadi iniziali di neoplasia esofago-cardiale
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
Cholecystectomy during esophagectomy is safe but unnecessary
No full textBACKGROUND:
Prophylactic cholecystectomy has been proposed as a concomitant procedure during upper gastrointestinal surgery. This study evaluates the safety and the need of concurrent cholecystectomy during esophagectomy for cancer.
METHODS:
All consecutive esophagectomies for esophageal cancer at the Center for Esophageal Diseases in Padova (Italy) between 1992 and 2011 were included. The safety of concurrent cholecystectomy was evaluated by surgical outcomes (length of stay, postoperative mortality and perioperative complications). The need for concurrent cholecystectomy was evaluated by occurrence of biliary duct stones and of cholelithiasis/cholecystitis after esophagectomy.
RESULTS:
Cholecystectomy was performed during 67 out of 1087 esophagectomies (6.2%). Cirrhosis or chronic liver disease was associated with receiving cholecystectomy during esophagectomy (OR: 1.99, 95%C.I. 1.10-3.56). Patients receiving and those not receiving cholecystectomy showed similar length of stay (median 14 days, p = .87), postoperative mortality (3.0% vs. 2.5%, p = .68), intraoperative complication (4.5% vs. 7.1%, p = .62), early complications (52.2% vs. 44.6%, p = .25) and late complications (20.9% vs. 24.8%, p = .56). Cholelithiasis/cholecystitis after esophagectomy occurred in 61 (6.1%) patients, with only four requiring cholecystectomy during follow-up. The biliary stone occurrence was nil. Only pathologic stage III-IV (OR: 2.17, 95%C.I. 1.19-3.96) was associated with cholelithiasis/cholecystitis after esophagectomy.
CONCLUSION:
Routine prophylactic cholecystectomy during esophagectomy could be safe but unnecessary
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
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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