1,720,958 research outputs found
The metanalysis of antiplatelet treatment trials. A proposal of an additional key of lecture [La metanalisi dei trial di terapia antiaggregante. Proposta di una chiave aggiuntiva di lettura]
No full textThe efficacy of drug treatment is conventionally assessed by clinical trials. In these studies, experimental design, data analysis and interpretation of results are based on statistical methods. It is difficult to relate to a specific patient the data obtained from statistically analysed studies of population. In our opinion the statistical parameter NNT (Number of patients Needed to Treat) indicates the effectiveness of a treatment taking into consideration the basal risk as well as the risk reduction after therapy. We applied the NNT parameter to data taken from the metanalysis Antiplatelet Trialists' Collaboration concerning secondary prevention of adverse vascular events with antiplatelet drugs. We focused on the long-term effect of antiplatelet therapy on the adverse events reduction; in the first year of treatment we observed a NNT value of 37, in the second year a NNT value of 59 and in the third year a NNT value of 200; in the fourth year we found absence of effect. The NNT parameter allows us to evaluate immediately the economic consequences of therapeutic strategies and the clinical impact of a long-term treatment
Nimodipine:drug pharmacokinetics and plasma adenosine levels in patients affected by cerebral ischemia
No full textActivity of citalopram on adenosine and serotonin circulating levels in depressed patients
No full textCitalopram is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor used in the treatment of depression. Recent investigations have shown that it reduces in rat brain the release of excitatory amino neurotransmitters acid glutamate and aspartate by the involvement of the inhibitory neuromodulator adenosine. In this study, we described citalopram and serotonin levels in plasma and platelets, as well as plasma adenosine levels, in depressive patients during acute and chronic administration of citalopram. Twelve patients affected by Major Depression (DSM-IV) received a single oral dose of citalopram in the morning, 5 mg in the first 5 days, 10 mg from the 6th to the 10th day, and 20 mg from the 11th to the 40th day. Blood samples for citalopram, serotonin, and adenosine were collected at Time 0 and 4, 12 and 24 hours after drug administration on the first day of citalopram 5 mg, and on the first and the last day of citalopram 20 mg. Citalopram, serotonin, and adenosine concentrations in plasma increased after citalopram administration, and the highest levels were observed on the last day of treatment. Citalopram was detectable in platelets with concentrations showing a time variation similar to plasma values. Serotonin levels in platelets decreased after drug administration, reaching the lowest values on the last day of treatment
Effect of iloprost on plasma asymmetric dimethylarginine and plasma and platelet serotonin in patients with peripheral arterial occlusive disease
No full textBackground
Iloprost, a prostacyclin analogue, is used in the treatment of peripheral arterial occlusive disease at Leriche–Fontaine stages III–IV, through intravenous infusion for at least 21 days. Recently, iloprost has been shown to be safe and effective in critical limb ischemia patients when administered per 7 days. We investigated in patients at Leriche–Fontaine stages III–IV the effect of 1-week treatment with iloprost on plasma asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA), plasma and platelet serotonin, and on clinical response.
Methods and results
Twenty-four critical limb ischemia patients (16 men and 8 women, mean age 76 ± 9.7 years) were included in the study and treated with intravenous iloprost (titrated from 0.5 up to 1.5 ng/kg/min) for 16 h a day for seven consecutive days. Blood samples were drawn before infusion on days 1, 4 and 8 of treatment, under the same conditions. Clinical assessment was performed by clinical evaluation, ankle/brachial pressure index and treadmill exercise test. During treatment with iloprost patients clinically improved and plasma levels of ADMA significantly decreased (p < 0.001). We also observed a significant increase of serotonin (p < 0.01) in platelets and a significant decrease of serotonin (p < 0.001) in plasma. Similar variations of ADMA and serotonin were found in two subgroups of patients, diabetics and non-diabetics.
Conclusions
One-week treatment with iloprost in critical limb ischemia patients induced changes of peripheral markers of endothelial dysfunction and atherosclerosis, such as ADMA and serotonin, associated to a clinical improvement
Increase of adenosine plasma levels after oral trimetazidine: a pharmacological preconditioning?
No full textTrimetazidine (1-[2,3,4-trimethoxybenzyl] piperazine) (TMZ) is a cellular anti-ischemic agent able to prevent intracellular ATP decrease, limit intracellular acidosis, protect against oxygen-free radical-induced toxicity and inhibit neutrophil infiltration. However, its definitive mechanism of action had not been identified. Recent studies showed the existence of an endogenous mechanism of cellular protection against ischemia, defined as 'ischemic preconditioning'. This mechanism was related mainly to cellular liberation of adenosine, a nucleoside with protective effects in myocardial ischemia. Since TMZ acts by increasing cell tolerance to ischemia and adenosine is the mediator of ischemic preconditioning, in this study we investigated a possible interaction between TMZ and adenosine. Two groups of patients affected by angina pectoris, were admitted to the study. They received a single oral dose of TMZ. One group was treated, during different sessions, with TMZ 10 and 20 mg, the other group with TMZ 40 and 80 mg. After a 3 day wash-out from drug administration, each group received a placebo. Blood samples were collected at baseline (time 0) and 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 h after drug administration, in order to detect plasma levels of adenosine by a high-performance liquid chromatography method. We observed that the administration of TMZ at doses of 10, 20, 40 and 80 mg induced an increase of adenosine plasma levels of 19, 50, 62 and 62%, respectively. We hypothesized that the activity of TMZ could depend, at least in part, on adenosine mediation and this interaction opens a new interpretation of the drug antischemic effect. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd
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
- …
