1,721,066 research outputs found
Risk Factors of Cholangiocarcinoma
No full textWe present the current knowledge on the etiology of cholangiocarcinoma. Due to the important differences existing in the epidemiological features of intra- and extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, risk factos are discussed separately for ICC and ECC. Well established risk factors include inherited/congenital disorders of the bile ducts (blie duct cysts, primary sclerosing, cholangitis, Caroli's disease), recurrent cholangitis, choledocholithiasis, hepatolithiasis, parasitic infestation, hemochromatosis, Wilson's disease, acquired liver disease (cirrhosis and viral hepatitis)and exposure to Thorotrast. Recent investigations focused on personal and environmental exposures, including cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, obesity/diabetes and asbestos exposure. Limited knowledge on the role of genetic polymorphisms is available to date
Genetic heterogeneity in cholangiocarcinoma: a major challenge for targeted therapies
Full text linkCholangiocarcinoma (CC) encompasses a group of related but distinct malignancies whose lack of a stereotyped genetic signature makes challenging the identification of genomic landscape and the development of effective targeted therapies.Accumulated evidences strongly suggest that the remarkable genetic heterogeneity of CC may be the result of a complex interplay among different causative factors, some shared by most human cancers while others typical of this malignancy.Currently, considerable efforts are ongoing worldwide for the genetic characterization of CC, also using advanced technologies such as next-generation sequencing (NGS). Undoubtedly this technology could offer an unique opportunity to broaden our understanding on CC molecular pathogenesis. Despite this great potential, however, the high complexity in terms of factors potentially contributing to genetic variability in CC calls for a more cautionary application of NGS to this malignancy, in order to avoid possible biases and criticisms in the identification of candidate actionable targets. This approach is further justified by the urgent need to develop effective targeted therapies in this disease.A multidisciplinary approach integrating genomic, functional and clinical studies is therefore mandatory to translate the results obtained by NGS into effective targeted therapies for this orphan disease
Dietary Preferences and Nutritional Information Needs Among Career Firefighters in the United States
No full textBACKGROUND:
Considerable cardiovascular disease and cancer risk among firefighters are attributable to excess adiposity. Robust evidence confirms strong relationships between dietary patterns and the risk of chronic disease. Dietary modification is more likely to be effective when the strategy is appealing and addresses knowledge gaps.
OBJECTIVE:
To assess career firefighters' diet practices and information needs, compare the relative appeal of proposed diet plans, and examine how these vary in association with body composition.
METHODS:
Cross-sectional, online survey distributed to members of the International Association of Fire Fighters.
RESULTS:
Most firefighters do not currently follow any specific dietary plan (71%) and feel that they receive insufficient nutrition information (68%), but most are interested in learning more about healthy eating (75%). When presented with written descriptions of diets without names or labels and asked to rank them in order of preference, firefighters most often rated the Mediterranean diet as their favorite and gave it a more favorable distribution of relative rankings (P<.001) compared to the Paleo, Atkins, Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes, and Esselsteyn Engine 2 (low-fat, strictly plant-based) diets. Obese respondents reported more limited nutritional knowledge (P<.001) and were more likely to feel that they received insufficient nutritional information (P=.021) than participants with normal body weight.
CONCLUSIONS:
Most career firefighters are overweight or obese and do not practice a specific diet; however, 75% want to learn more about healthy eating. Among popular dietary choices, firefighters were most receptive to a Mediterranean diet and least receptive to a strictly plant-based diet
Vascular risk factors and rhegmatogenous retinal detachment: A follow-up of a national cohort of Swedish men
No full textBackground We aimed to investigate the role of vascular risk factors in the genesis of rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) using data from a large cohort of Swedish conscripts. Methods We used data from a nationwide cohort of 49 321 Swedish men born during 1949-1951, conscripted for compulsory military service in 1969- 1970 with nearly complete follow-up to 2009. Information on surgically treated RRD between 1973 and 2009 was collected from the National Patient Register. We fitted Cox regression models stratified on myopia degree and including blood pressure levels, body mass index and cigarette smoking. Population attributable fractions of RRD were estimated through maximum likelihood methods. Results We observed 262 cases of RRD in 1 725 770 person-years. At multivariate analysis, the number of cigarettes per day showed a reverse association with the risk of RRD (p for trend 0.01). Conscripts with obesity presented a higher risk compared with normal subjects (adjusted HR 2.51, 95% CI 1.02 to 6.13). We found weak evidence of an association between blood pressure and RRD (HR for men with hypertension compared with normotension 1.41, 95% CI 0.93 to 2.13). All the observed associations were stronger when the analysis was restricted to non-myopic conscripts. In particular, the HR for hypertension was 2.33 (95% CI 1.30 to 4.19) compared with normotension. If this association is causal, we estimated that 42.0% of RRD cases (95% CI 11.5% to 62.0%) occurring among non-myopics are attributable to elevated blood pressure. Conclusions Vascular risk factors may be important determinants of RRD, particularly among non-myopics. Further investigations on the role of hypertension and obesity are needed
Refractive state, intelligence, education, and Lord's paradox
No full textIn a cohort of Swedish men (N = 45.906), we found that men with myopia had higher levels of intelligence and education than men with emmetropia and both these groups had higher levels than men with hyperopia. The educational advantage of myopia was reduced by 47–66 percent when adjusting for intelligence but still remained significant. When adjusting for intelligence hyperopes had a higher level of education than emmetropes. Hyperopes also had the highest level of education compared to their level of intelligence. The reversal in the difference between hyperopes and emmetropes when adjusting for intelligence could be seen as an example of Lord's paradox, possibly due to hyperopes having a higher level of intelligence than emmetropes with the same intelligence test score
Notifica e differenze regionali
No full textNonostante la notifica di malattia professionale sia obbligatoria per legge in molte nazioni, la mancata o non corretta notifica è un fenomeno che interessa tutti i paesi industrializzati. Valutare quantitativamente l’entità della mancata o non corretta notifica è un compito arduo, non esistendo modelli di riferimento per la stima dei valori attesi.
I dati INAIL indicano un’alta eterogeneità dei tassi di certificazione di malattie professionali nelle diverse aree del nostro Paese. Questo fenomeno può essere studiato per cercare di comprendere le ragioni che a livello territoriale possono portare ad una non corretta notifica delle malattie professionali, sia nel senso della sotto- che della sovra-notifica
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
L’apporto della comunità scientifica italiana alle prove di efficacia in medicina del lavoro
No full text«The contribution of the Italian scientific community to efficacy studies in Occupational Health (1990-
2006)». Introduction: Evidence-based prevention (EBP) is gaining growing interest among the international
scientific community in the field of Occupational Health. In order to ascertain the commitment that has been
made in Italy to participation in EBP, we conducted a systematic review of scientific publications on efficacy evaluations
in Italy. Methods: We hand-searched journals and interrogated the PubMed database to identify reports
of studies evaluating interventions designed to improve workers’ health in Italy between 1990 and 2006. The selected
articles were classified by institutional category (of the first author), intervention methodology, study design,
type of risk factor, and occupational sector. Results: We found 23 eligible publications in the Italian language and
9 in English. The most frequent study-design was pre-/post-intervention evaluation; 3 studies were randomized
trials. The interventions were aimed mainly at controlling the effects of chemical hazards and noise; health-care
settings were the most frequent. We found only 2 studies (1 in English) evaluating the efficacy of interventions
targeting injury prevention. Discussion: The systematic approach of EBP can be applied to most occupational
health interventions. These results may contribute to the debate on methodology and outcomes in the scientific
community
A survey of stress levels and time spent across law enforcement duties: Police chief and officer agreement
No full textHealth issues are commonly reported by law enforcement officers (LEOs) and often associated with stress. This study is the first to investigate the time spent and perceived stress encountered across the diverse variety of LEO activities. We developed a questionnaire to assess an average police officer's experience across 22 different duties. We then conducted two independent national surveys: one of police chiefs' views of their typical officer and the other of frontline officers' personal perspectives. Police chiefs and frontline officers perceived the same duties as the most stressful (e.g. suspect pursuit, witnessing traumatic events and physical altercations) and least stressful (e.g. certain routine duties). Additionally, chiefs' and frontline officers' absolute and relative stress rankings of all 22 duties were strikingly similar (Spearman's rho 0.95, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.82-0.99). Moreover, chiefs and frontline officers estimated very similar relative annual durations of duty-specific exposures for frontline officers (rho: 0.91, 95% CI 0.74-0.98, P<0.0001)
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