1,721,002 research outputs found
Long-term weight loss and maintenance in morbidly obese individuals with obstructive sleep apnea
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Measures of dyspnea in pulmonary rehabilitation
Full text linkAbstract Dyspnea is the main symptom perceived by patients affected by chronic respiratory diseases. It derives from a complex interaction of signals arising in the central nervous system, which is connected through afferent pathway receptors to the peripheral respiratory system (airways, lung, and thorax). Notwithstanding the mechanism that generates the stimulus is always the same, the sensation of dyspnea is often described with different verbal descriptors: these descriptors, or linguistic 'clusters', are clearly influenced by socio-individual factors related to the patient. These factors can play an important role in identifying the etiopathogenesis of the underlying cardiopulmonary disease causing dyspnea. The main goal of rehabilitation is to improve dyspnea; hence, quantifying dyspnea through specific tools (scales) is essential in order to describe the level of chronic disability and to assess eventual changes after intervention. Improvements, even if modest, are likely to determine clinically relevant changes (minimal clinically important difference, MCID) in patients. Currently there exist a large number of scales to classify and characterize dyspnea: the most frequently used in everyday clinical practice are the clinical scales (e.g. MRC or BDI/TDI, in which information is obtained directly from the patients through interview) and psychophysical scales (such as the Borg scale or VAS, which assess symptom intensity in response to a specific stimulus, e.g. exercise). It is also possible to assess the individual's dyspnea in relation to specific situations, e.g. chronic dyspnea (with scales that classify patients according to different levels of respiratory disability); exertional dyspnea (with tools that can measure the level of dyspnea in response to a physical stimulus); and transitional (or 'follow up') dyspnea (with scales that measure the effect in time of a treatment intervention, such as rehabilitation).</p
Co-morbidities in chronic respiratory patients: limitations or opportunities for caring?
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Exercise Capacity as a Pulmonary Rehabilitation Outcome
No full textDisabled patients with chronic respiratory disease and peripheral skeletal muscle disorders have limitations in their exercise capacity, which may be improved after specific training in a pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) program. Individual assessment of exercise capacity by clinically available exercise tests represents an important patient-centered outcome that should be embedded in the rehabilitation process. These measurements include laboratory (treadmill and/or cycle ergometer) and field (walking) tests. The cardiopulmonary exercise test, both performed with incremental (incremental-load test) or predetermined (constant-load or endurance test) loading, is an excellent means to describe the profile of an individual's maximal exercise capacity and to record its change after PR. Among the variety of field-based tests, 6-min walking and shuttle walking are 2 simple tests widely used during PR. These tests are inexpensive and provide information on an individual's functional abilities: the 6-min walking test has been shown to provide level of disability and functional status, whereas the shuttle walking test has been shown to be more suitable to detect change of physical performance following PR. Overall, several available physiologically targeted tests are useful to measure the patient's tolerance to exercise, and many are even sensitive to change once intervention has taken place. In particular, endurance modality tests seem to provide better measurement of changes after PR than incremental exercise tests
Anthropometry in special and selective conditions and circumstances: Anthropometry as measure of risk in COPD patients
No full textIn the last decade, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) has been redefined and newly approached not only as an airway-disease condition, but as a multi-component disease including extra-pulmonary manifestations, such as peripheral muscle weakness and malnutrition.The evaluation of body composition (as a part of nutritional assessment) fairly integrates the simple body mass index (BMI) measure by measuring the individual’s active metabolism (fat free mass, FFM). Indeed, BMI and FFM are both parameters correlated with many COPD-strong out- comes. In several epidemiological studies of COPD population admitted to both in- or outpatient rehabilitation programmes, the estimated prevalence of weight loss ranges from 17% to 53%. Nonetheless, weight reduction, together with FFM depletion, is a common feature in emphysema as well as in chronic bronchitis.A nutritionally depleted patient is usually defined by a BMI of £ 20 kg/m2. Several studies aimed at evaluating the prognostic value of BMI in COPD patients have documented that BMI £ 25 kg/m2 and weight reduction of >3 kg/m2 are strong predictors of mortality. Moreover, other studies confirmed that FFM and measurement of the cross-sectional area of muscle mass (mid-thigh and mid-arm) also correlate to survival rates.In future research, studies looking at other anthropometric, metabolic and functional factors able to predict the long-term survival should be welcomed in patients with other diseases, such as pul- monary fibrosis, similarly leading to chronic respiratory failure
Respiratory muscles training in COPD patients
Full text linkIt is known that respiratory muscles undergo adaptation in response to overload stimuli during exercise training in stable COPD patients, thus resulting in significant increase of respiratory muscle function as well as the individual's improvements. The present article reviews the most updated evidence with regard to the use of respiratory muscle training (RMT) methods in COPD patients. Basically, three types of RMT (resistive training, pressure threshold loading, and normocapnic hyperpnea) have been reported. Frequency, duration, and intensity of exercise must be carefully considered for a training effect. In contrast with the plentitude of existing data inherent to inspiratory muscle training (IMT), literature is still lacking in showing clinical and physiological studies related to expiratory muscle training (EMT). In particular, while it seems that IMT is slightly superior to EMT in providing additional benefits other than respiratory muscle function such as a reduction in dyspnea, both the effects and the safety of EMT is still to be definitively elucidated in patients with COPD
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
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