1,720,954 research outputs found
Direct acting antivirals (DAAs) for the treatment of HCV infection in HIV/HCV coinfected patients: a clinical experience.
No full textBackground
HIV/hepatitis C virus (HCV) coinfection has an unfavourable influence on the natural history of HCV, resulting in an increased rate of progression to cirrhosis, HCC and end stage liver disease. Although direct acting antivirals (DAAs) have proven to be effective in eradicating HCV infection in coinfected individuals, few data on cost effectiveness in clinical practice are available to date.
Purpose
This prospective study aims to assess efficacy and costs of DAAs in an outpatient population of HIV/HCV coinfected subjects.
Material and methods
A database for DAA prescription monitoring was created, including information on the overall cost of the anti-‐HCV regimen for each patient. Patients were treated according to the local prescription regulations. Virologic response to DAAs was assessed at weeks 4, 12 and 24 after treatment initiation. Additional clinical and laboratory data were obtained from the medical records.
Results
35 subjects were studied (males 80%, mean age 51 years), 23 undergoing a 12 week treatment course and 12 a 24 week course. Prior to initiation, 74% of patients had HIV plasma viral load below the detection limit. 80% changed at least one HIV medication to minimise the risk of drug-‐drug interactions; eventually, 71% switched to an integrase inhibitor based regimen. 87% of patients undergoing a 12 week DAA regimen had HCV genotype 1 infection whereas 67% of patients on a 24 week regimen had genotype 3. An interferon free regimen was chosen for 91% of patients. Ribavirin was used in combination with DAAs in 57% of subjects. Preferred combinations were simeprevir/sofosbuvir for the treatment of genotype 1 and sofosbuvir/ribavirin or daclatasvir/sofosbuvir for genotype 3. Other combinations were paritaprevir/dasabuvir/ombitasvir/ritonavir and ledipasvir/sofosbuvir. 55% of patients showed undetectable HCV viraemia at week 4 and 86% at week 12. To date, 22 patients have completed the full treatment course (19 patients 12 weeks, 3 patients 24 weeks), all showing undetectable HCV viraemia. Among these, 23% experienced mild side effects, all related to ribavirin co-administration (anaemia, fatigue). Mean treatment cost was approximately 55,000€ per patient.
Conclusion
This prospective study shows the effectiveness and safety of DAA therapy in HIV/HCV coinfected individuals in the clinical setting, despite the high cost. Data collection on sustained virologic response after treatment discontinuation is still ongoing
Efficacy and costs of Direct Acting Antivirals (DAAS) for the treatment of HCV Iinfection amnog HCV-monoinfected and HIV/HCV co-infected patients in real-life setting
No full textBACKGROUND
Although several studies analyzing the effectiveness of DAAs have showed no differences between HCV-monoinfected and HIV/HCV-coinfected patients,data in real-life setting are still limited.
PURPOSE
To compare efficacy and costs of DAAs in HCV-monoinfected and HIV/HCV-coinfected subjects.
METHODS
A database of HCV-monoinfected and HIV/HCV-coinfected adults who started HCV therapy between January 2015 and July 2016 was created in order to collect the following data:sustained virological response to DAAs therapy at week 12(SVR12) and at week 24(SVR24) after treatment initiation, treatment regimen, and overall cost of anti-HCV regimens.Patients were treated as follows: sofosbuvir/ribavirin ± peg-INF (n=37), sofosbuvir/daclatasvir(n=72), sofosburiv/ledipasvir(n=68), sofosburiv/simeprevir(n=77), simeprevir/peg-interferon(n=13) or ombitasvir/paritaprevir/ritonavir/dasabuvir(n=14). Overall, ribavirin was used in combination with DAAs in 67% of patients.
RESULTS
The study enrolled 281 subjects(81% monoinfected and 19% co-infected), treated for 12(54% of monoinfected and 50% of co-infected) or 24 weeks(46% of monoinfected and 50% of co-infected). Two hundred and twenty nine patients had cirrhosis or high degree fibrosis (≥F3) at the beginning of DAAs (79% of HCV-monoinfected and 91% of HIV/HCV co-infected);other 23 subjects(all but one HCV-monoinfected) were treated after liver transplantation. Two hundreds and ten (93%) HCV-monoinfected patients completed the treatment; 96% achieved SVR12 and 97% reached SVR24. The most prescribed regimens were 12-week sofosburiv/simeprevir(27%) or sofosburiv/ledipasvir(17%), and 24-week sofosbuvir/daclatasvir(17%). The average cost of a complete HCV-treatment in monoinfected population was € 49.633 per patient. Among the 47 HIV/HCV-coinfected patients(87%) who completed the treatment, 94% achieved SVR12 and 96% obtained SVR24;12-week sofosburiv/simeprevir was prescribed to 24% of them, whereas the most frequent 24-week treatments were sofosburiv/daclatasvir and sofosburiv/ledipasvir(20% each). The average cost of a complete HCV-treatment in coinfected population was € 53.573 per patient.
CONCLUSION
This study confirms the high effectiveness of DAAs in the treatment of HCV infection in real life setting, both in HCV-monoinfected and HIV/HCV-coinfected patients. The average cost of single treatment was also similar between the two groups
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
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
- …
