1,720,973 research outputs found
Covert hepatik ensefalopati tanısında klinik bulgular, critical flicker frequency testi ve enflamasyon göstergelerinin karşılaştırmalı değerlendirmesi
No full textHepatik ensefalopati karaciğer hastalığının ağır ve sık görülen komplikasyonlarından biridir. Ciddi şekilde hastanın ve hastaya bakan kişilerin yaşamlarını etkilemektedir. Bunun yanı sıra, siroz ile ilişkili bilişsel bozukluklar, karaciğer hastalıklarının diğer belirtilerinden daha fazla sağlık merkezlerine başvuru sebebidir. Altta yatan karaciğer hastalığı tedavi edilse de HE düşük yaşam beklentisi ve yüksek rekürrens riskine sahiptir. En hafif seyirli teşhirinde HE sadece dikkat, kısa süreli hafıza, psikomotor hız ve görsel-uzamsal odaklı psikometrik testlerin yanı sıra diğer beyin ve elektrofizyolojik ölçütleri bozmaktadır. Klinik belirtilere göre yapılan sınıflamada, minimal ve grade 1 Ensefalopati tablosuna "Covert" (Gizli); grade 2, 3 ve 4 Ensefalopati tablosuna "Overt" (Aşikar) Ensefalopati denmektedir. Özellikle grade 1 HE için, hafif hipokinezi, psikomotor yavaşlama ve dikkat eksikliği klinik değerlendirmede gözden kaçabilir. Bilişsel disfonksiyon tanısını koymak da klinik gözlem ve nörofizyolojik veya nöropsikolojik testler ile mümkün olabilmektedir. Zorluk bunların HE için özgün bulgular olmamasından kaynaklanmaktadır. Minimal HE'nin (MHE) isabetli teşhis oranını arttırmak için psikometrik ölçümler kullanılmıştır. Ancak bu testler kişilerin yaş ve eğitim durumundan etkilenmektedir. Yine Minimal HE'nin beyin fonksiyonları ile ilişkisini ortaya koymak için yapılan fMRI ve Arteriyal Spin Etiketleme teknikleri ile MR Görüntülemeleri erişim ve maliyet gibi engeller çıkarmaktadır. Hepatik ensefalopatiyi ortaya çıkarmak için kullanılan Nöropsikolojik testler arasında EEG ve critical flicker frequency (CFF) bulunmaktadır. Hastalığın patogenezinde halen en önemli faktör olarak amonyak gösterilmektedir. Ancak kandaki amonyak düzeyi ile HE derecesi paralellik göstermemektedir. MHE' li hastalarda bile beyin tarafından alınıp metabolize edilen amonyak miktarında ciddi artış olmaktadır. HE patogenezinde son dönemde gündemde olan konulardan biri de sistemik enflamasyon göstergeleri ve endotoksinlerdir. Klinik değerlendirmede kullanılan objektif testlerin ve prospektif çalışmaların sayısında azlık olması göze çarpmaktadır. Tüm bunlar HE'nin değerlendirilmesindeki zorluğu göstermektedir. Biz de bu veriler ışığında West-Haven sınıflaması kullanarak, hepatik ensefalopatisi olmayan siroz hastalarının ve Covert HE'li siroz hastalarının, psikometrik testler, CFF testi, venöz amonyak örneklemesi, serum endotoksin, IL-6, IL-18, TNFα düzeyleri açısından farklılıkları olup olmadığını araştırmayı amaçladık. Ayrca günlük pratikte sık kullanılan hemogram parametreleriden ortalama trombosit hacmi, nötrofil lenfosit oranı, lenfosit monosit oranı gibi enflamatuar göstergelerin yanı sıra albümin, INR, CRP, total bilirubin, trombosit sayısı gibi yaygın olarak kullanılan parametrelerin değerlendirilebileceğini düşünerek inceledik. Bunların dışında hastaların hekimleri tarafından HE tedavi veya proflaksi amacıyla reçete edilen ilaçlarla tedavi sonrasında ilacın biyokimyasal değerlere ve bu enflamasyon parametrelerine etkisini de araştırdık
Can we predict hepatic encephalopathy? What do the hemogram parameters tell us?
No full textINTRODUCTION: Crosstalk between hepatocytes and immune cells is the key point that ultimately leads to inflammation and fibrosis. This is well-known entity underlying the decompansation of liver failure. Recently, it has been shown that the ratio of lymphocyte to monocytes that can be measured easily in peripheral blood reflects many inflammatory processes. In this study, we aimed to find the novel inflammatory parameters predicting subclinical hepatic encephalopathy in patients with liver failure who were routinely followed up in outpatient clinics. METHODS: Seventy-six cirrhotic patients who were followed up in Ege University Medical Faculty Hospital Gastroenterology-Hepatology out-patient clinic were included in the study. Thirteen similar healthy volunteers in terms of age and gender were also recruited. We applied psychometric hepatic encephalopathy score (PHES) and Critical flicker frequency test (CFF) for both patient groups (with and without covert hepatic encephalopathy (CHE)). We analyzed neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR), mean platelet volume as well as INR, CRP, albumin, total bilirubines and platelet counts from routine clinic testing samples, retrospectively. RESULTS: According to West-Haven criteria, CHE was detected in 41 patients and not detected in 35 patients. When CFF test was applied, patients with CHE completed by reacting late compared to non-CHE patients (p<0.001). While NLR was inversely related to LMR, albumin and serum sodium, it was also found to be significantly proportional to serum bilirubin, INR, and CRP levels. In addition to all tests used in PHES, LMR results were significantly correlated with serum albumin and sodium levels (p<0.05) while total bilirubin, INR, and CRP levels were found to be inversely proportional (p<0.05). We found that LMR and NLR levels correlated significantly with MELD score and Child Pugh score (-,477 and -,722 vs,487 and,664 resp. p<0.001). Lower LMR levels also correlated significantly with psychometric tests (p is 0.005 for Serial Dotting Test (SDT), 0.003 for Number Collecting Test (NCT), 0.011 for Line Tracing Test (LTT), 0.042 for Digit Symbol Test (DST)) which are considered as gold standard by some authorities. CONCLUSION: LMR and NLR, which are cheap and easily available hemogram parameters, can provide early warning to clinicians for cirrhotic patients in outpatient follow-up.</p
Psychometric tests, critical flicker frequency, and inflammatory indicators in covert hepatic encephalopathy diagnosis
No full textBackground and Aim: Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a frequent complication of liver diseases. Systemic inflammation is key for HE pathogenesis. The main goal of the study was to investigate the role of psychometric tests, critical flicker frequency (CFF), and comparative evaluation of inflammatory indicators for the diagnosis of covert HE (CHE).Material and Methods: The study was a prospective, nonrandomized, case–control study with a total of 76 cirrhotic patients and 30 healthy volunteers. The West Haven criteria were used to determine the occurrence of CHE in cirrhotic patients. Psychometric tests were applied to healthy and cirrhotic groups. CFF, venous ammonia, serum endotoxin, IL-6, IL-18, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) levels, and hemogram parameters were evaluated for cirrhotic patients.Results: CFF values and psychometric tests were found to accurately discriminate CHE positives from CHE negatives (p<0.05). When the control group was excluded, the digit symbol test and the number connection A test failed, unlike CFF and other psychometric tests. Using CFF, a 45 Hz cutoff value had 74% specificity and 75% sensitivity. Basal albumin levels (p=0.063), lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR) (p=0.086), and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (p 0.052) were significant, albeit slightly, among CHE groups. Basal albumin levels had 50% sensitivity and 71% specificity when 2.8 g/dL was used as a cutoff value to determine CHE.Conclusion: Both psychometric tests and CFF can be useful in diagnosing CHE. Using cytokine and endotoxin levels seems to be inadequate to diagnose CHE. Using LMR and albumin levels instead of psychometric tests for diagnosing CHE can be promising.</p
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Get PDFWe 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
- …
