1,720,958 research outputs found
Signs and Symptoms
No full textHepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is often diagnosed after the tumor manifests clinical signs
and symptoms. Early diagnosis is usually performed thanks to HCC screening programs for
patients affected by liver cirrhosis or chronic viral hepatopathies using ultrasound and serum
alfa-fetoprotien. In most HCC cases, clinical signs and symptoms of this tumor may occur
several months after development, when therapy can not be curative, given the advanced
tumor stage and underlying liver disease, which preclude curative options, such as ablation,
resection, or liver transplantation.
Clinical features of HCC are often similar to those caused by the underlying hepatic disease.
It is very hard for physicians to distinguish signs and symptoms of HCC in contests characterized
by an advanced liver disease. Advanced liver cancer can be responsible for accelerated
liver functions deterioration caused by the intrahepatic tumor growth.
In this chapter, we review the clinical signs and symptoms induced by advanced carcinoma.
We also discuss particular clinical scenarios caused by metastases and paraneoplastic syndromes,
sometimes described case reports in literature
Effects of antihypertensive drugs on alcohol-induced functional responses of cultured human endothelial cells.
No full textAlcohol-induced endothelial changes might contribute to an increase in blood pressure in regular alcohol consumers. Some antihypertensive drugs affect oxidative stress and endothelial function and might counteract the effects of alcohol at the cellular level. The aim of this study was to investigate in vitro the effects of three different types of anti hypertensive agents on alcohol-induced endothelial responses and oxidative stress. Cultured human endothelial cells were exposed to increasing concentrations (1, 10, 60 mu mol/L) of zofenoprilat, carvedilol, and lacidipine in the absence and in the presence of ethanol (140 mmol/L). Concentrations of endothelin (ET) and nitric oxide (NO) were measured in the culture media as markers of endothelial function, and malondialdehyde (MDA) and intracellular glutathione (GSHi) were measured as markers of oxidative stress. Exposure to alcohol increased the levels of ET, NO, and MDA, and decreased GSHi. Carvedilol and zofenoprilat were more effective than lacidipine in counteracting the effects of alcohol on ET production. Alcohol-induced NO production was enhanced by carvedilol, whereas zofenoprilat and lacidipine did not have a significant effect. The alcohol-induced increase in MDA concentrations was blunted by all three drugs, but only carvedilol restored a normal response. All three drugs increased GSHi levels, with the effect being greater for carvedilol and lacidipine than zofenoprilat. Carvedilol is more effective than zofenoprilat and lacidipine in counteracting alcohol-induced endothelial responses in vitro and in decreasing oxidative stress. These effects might be particularly beneficial in patients with alcohol-related hypertension
Plasma adiponectin is decreased in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
No full textObjectives: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a major cause of liver-related morbidity and is frequently associated with obesity and metabolic syndrome. The recently discovered hormone adiponectin is produced by adipose tissue, and low plasma adiponectin is considered a key factor in the development of the insulin resistance underlying metabolic syndrome. Animal studies suggest that adiponectin may protect against non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, but direct evidence in humans is lacking. We therefore conducted this study to assess the relationship between plasma adiponectin and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease to explore its role in the pathogenesis of this disease. Design and methods: We measured plasma adiponectin and anthropometric, biochemical, hormonal and metabolic correlates in a group of 17 NAFLD patients with diagnosis confirmed by biopsy, and 20 controls with comparable age, body-mass index and sex. Furthermore we compared plasma adiponectin in patients with simple steatosis and steatchepatitis. Results: Plasma adiponectin was significantly lower in NAFLD patients than controls (5.93 +/- 0.45 vs 15.67 +/- 1.60 ng/ml). Moreover, NAFLD patients were significantly more insulin resistant while having similar serum leptin. Adiponectin was similar in simple steatosis and in steatohepatitis (6.16 +/- 0.78 vs 5.69 +/- 0.49 ng/ml). An inverse correlation was observed between adiponectin and homeostatic model assessment (HOMA) of insulin resistance (P = 0.008), while adiponectin did not correlate with serum transaminases and lipid values. Conclusions: These data support a role for low circulating adiponectin in the pathogenesis of NAFLD and confirm the strict association between reduced adiponectin production by adipose tissue, NAFLD and insulin resistance
Fluoxetine disposition in patients suffering from chronic hepatitis C treated with interferon alpha
No full textBackground and Objectives: Combination therapy with interferon-alpha and ribavirin is considered the treatment of choice for chronic hepatitis C. However, interferon-alpha may induce severe depression It has been suggested that interferon-alpha is able to modify cytochrome P450 (CYP) 1A2 and 2D6 activity. We therefore decided to study the effects of the interferon-alpha-2b pegylated derivative on fluoxetine disposition in patients receiving combination chemotherapy for chronic hepatitis C. Methods: After approval by the institutional ethics committee, 20 adult patients with chronic hepatitis C, but with no history of other liver diseases, were prospectively admitted to the study, which included phenotyping by means of a dextromethorphan test and evaluation of fluoxetine and norfluoxetine pharmacokinetic parameters (the area under the serum concentration-time curve, maximum serum concentration, time to reach the maximum serum concentration and terminal elimination half-life) before and after 2 months of continuous peginterferon-alpha-2b therapy. Results: The only statistically Significant difference we observed was a significant reduction in the terminal elimination half-life of fluoxetine (from 4730 to 33.23 hours; p=0.014) after peginterferon-alpha-2b treatment. Conclusion: These data suggest that interferon-alpha may induce, rather than inhibit, the biotransformation of fluoxetine
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
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