1,720,970 research outputs found
Use of antihypertensive and lipid-lowering drugs: the management of cardiovascular risk in clinical practice
No full textJ Hum Hypertens. 2007 Jan;21(1):53-9. Epub 2006 Oct 12.
Use of antihypertensive and lipid-lowering drugs: the management of cardiovascular risk in clinical practice.
Di Martino M, Esposti LD, Filigheddu F, Veronesi C, Salerno G, Saragoni S, Glorioso N, Didoni G, Esposti ED.
Source
Statistics Department 'P. Fortunati', University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy. [email protected]
Abstract
The objective of the study was to analyse the treatment of high blood pressure (BP) and hypercholesterolaemia, as well as the effect of individual or combined antihypertensive-hypocholesterolaemic therapy on BP control and on circulating cholesterol. A retrospective study was performed using clinical data recorded in the general practitioner's database. The sample included all patients, aged > or =18 years, with BP reading or low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol measurement recorded between January 2003 and December 2004. BP and LDL cholesterol targets were defined using cutoffs based on the guidelines of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC7) and the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP/ATPIII). The study included 4764 patients (mean age 67.6+/-11.8 years, 43.5% males). Target BP was achieved in a higher number of patients under combined antihypertensive-hypocholesterolaemic therapy than in those treated only with antihypertensives: 57.0 vs 50.0% in patients with history of cardio/cerebrovascular (CV) hospitalization, 27.0 vs 16.9% in patients with diabetes or chronic renal insufficiency (CRI) and 59.7 vs 49.1% in patients with no CV hospitalization nor diabetes and nor CRI. The LDL cholesterol target was achieved in 61.3% of the subjects: it was independent on the therapy (individual or combined), but related to the degree of cardiovascular risk. Analysing the data contained in the general medicine database made it possible to evaluate the treatment of high BP and hypercholesterolaemia in relation to cardiovascular risk in clinical practice and to establish the need to pay greater attention to achieving the objective set by guidelines.
PMID: 17036042 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE
Calcium antagonists and cholesteryl ester metabolism in macrophages
No full textExperimental data indicate that calcium antagonists modify cellular lipid metabolism in the arterial wall as part of their antiatherosclerotic action observed in animal models. In the present study, we investigated the effect of verapamil, nifedipine, and lacidipine (a new dihydropyridine derivative) on cholesteryl ester metabolism in cultured mouse peritoneal macrophages (MPMs). Cholesteryl esters are formed in the cell via acyl-CoA:cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT), which senses free cholesterol supplied by lysosomal hydrolysis of lipoprotein cholesterol ester. Verapamil inhibited up to 99% the ability of acetyl-low-density lipoprotein (acLDL) to stimulate cholesterol esterification in macrophages, but was less effective in 25-hydroxycholesterol-stimulated MPMs and in cholesterol-loaded cells after acLDL removal. Cells incubated with [3H]cholesterol ester-acLDL and verapamil showed a reduction in the cholesterol/cholesteryl ester ratio. In the same experimental conditions, nifedipine displays minor or no effects on cholesterol esterification and in the cholesterol/cholesteryl ester ratio. On the contrary, the nifedipine-like lacidipine was active in inhibiting cholesterol esterification in macrophages elicited by acLDL. Our data indicate that calcium antagonists of different structure, even within the same class, may have various effects on cholesterol esterification in macrophages in cultur
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
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