1,720,959 research outputs found
Clinical characteristics of erythropoietin-associated pure red cell aplasia.
No full textRecombinant human erythropoietin (epoetin) was first used for the treatment of anemia resulting from renal disease in 1986. During the first 10 years of its use, there were only three cases of epoetin-induced antibodies reported, which resulted in pure red cell aplasia (PRCA). Between 1998 and 2002, 191 chronic kidney disease patients developed PRCA during the course of epoetin treatment. Clinical characteristics of patients with PRCA include an absolute resistance to epoetin therapy, with a rapid development of severe anemia and very low reticulocyte count. In addition, patients developed high titre, high affinity neutralizing antibodies, which are detectable by immunoassays. The diagnosis of PRCA requires the onset of severe anemia, erythropoietin neutralizing antibodies in circulation, the lack of red cell precursors in the bone marrow aspirate, and normal to elevated transferrin saturation. Patients require blood transfusions to maintain an acceptable level of hemoglobin. Cessation of epoetin treatment alone does not improve PRCA. Patients have required immunosuppressive treatment. However, the most efficacious treatment has been kidney transplantation accompanied by immunosuppressive agents that prevent organ rejection. Evaluating patients receiving recombinant epeoetin therapy who experience a sudden loss of epoetin efficacy for the possibility of antibody-mediated PRCA is crucial. Timely identification and treatment of this rare syndrome can prevent the development of severe red blood cell transfusion requirements and the potential complications of iron overload, which results from these transfusions
Monoclonal antibody-associated progressive multifocal leucoencephalopathy in patients treated with rituximab, natalizumab, and efalizumab: a Review from the Research on Adverse Drug Events and Reports (RADAR) Project
No full textAbstract
Progressive multifocal leucoencephalopathy (PML) is a serious and usually fatal CNS infection caused by JC polyoma virus. CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphopenia, resulting from HIV infection, chemotherapy, or immunosuppressive therapy, are the primary risk factors. The immune modulatory monoclonal antibodies rituximab, natalizumab, and efalizumab have received regulatory approval in the USA and Europe for treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, rheumatoid arthritis, and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (Europe only); multiple sclerosis and Crohn's disease; and psoriasis, respectively. Efalizumab and natalizumab administration is associated with CD4+ T lymphopenia and altered trafficking of T lymphocytes into the CNS, and rituximab leads to prolonged B-lymphocyte depletion. Unexpected cases of PML developing in people who receive these drugs have been reported, with many of the affected individuals dying from this disease. Herein, we review clinical findings, pathology, epidemiology, basic science, and risk-management issues associated with PML infection developing after treatment with these monoclonal antibodies
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
Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy: what's new?
No full textProgressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a severe demyelinating disease that is caused by human JC
polyomavirus, was first described as a complication of immune suppression 50 years ago and emerged as a major
complication of HIV infection in the 1980s. The prognosis has remained dismal since then, with discouraging results
from clinical trials of various therapeutic approaches, including immunomodulation and/or inhibition of viral replication.
PML is caused by reactivation of latent JC virus, and serotonergic 5-HT2a receptors have been identified as being critical
for viral infection of glial cells. In recent years, immunosuppressive therapeutic antibodies have been associated with an
increased incidence rate of PML. Here, the authors review findings on the pathogenesis of PML and the encouraging
case reports of novel treatments
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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