1,721,035 research outputs found
Pregnancy and β-thalassemia: An Italian multicenter experience
Full text linkBackground: Recent advances in the management of thalassemia have significantly improved life expectancy and quality of life of patients with this hemoglobinopathy, with a consequent increase in their reproductive potential and desire to have children. Design and Methods: We describe the methods of conception and delivery, as well as the course and outcome of pregnancy including transfusions, iron overload and chelation in 46 women with thalassemia major (58 pregnancies) and in 11 women with thalassemia intermedia (17 pregnancies). Conception was achieved after gonadotrophin-induced ovulation in 33 of the women with thalassemia major and spontaneously in all of those with thalassemia intermedia. Results: Among the women with thalassemia major, 91% of the pregnancies resulted in successful delivery of 45 singleton live-born neonates, five sets of twins and one set of triplets. No secondary complications of iron overload developed or worsened during pregnancy. When considering only the singleton pregnancies, the proportion of babies with intrauterine growth retardation did not differ from that reported in the general Italian population. The high prevalence of pre-term births (32.7%) was mostly related to multiple pregnancies and precautionary reasons. Pregnancy was safe in most women with thalassemia major or intermedia. However, women with thalassemia intermedia who had never previously been transfused or who had received only minimal transfusion therapy were at risk of severe alloimmune anemia if blood transfusions were required during pregnancy. Conclusions: Provided that a multidisciplinary team is available, pregnancy is possible, safe and usually has a favorable outcome in patients with thalassemia. In women with hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, gonadal function is usually intact and fertility is usually retrievable
New TFR2 mutations in young Italian patients with hemochromatosis.
No full textThis work describes the identification of two subjects with young-age iron overload carrying new causative mutations in transferrin receptor-2 gene. One was compound heterozygous (Asn411del/Ala444Thr) and the second was homozygous for a mutation affecting RNA splicing (IVS17+5636G>A). Another mutation (His33Asn) and a polymorphism were found in a group of 50 controls
A new glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase variant with congenital nonspherocytic hemolytic anemia (G6PD Genova). Biochemical characterization and mosaicism expression in the heterozygote.
No full textREGRESSION OF SYMPTOMS AFTER SELECTIVE IRON CHELATION THERAPY IN A CASE OF NEURODEGENERATION WITH BRAIN IRON ACCUMULATION (NBIA).
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Transferrin-immune complex disease: a potentially overlooked gammopathy mediated by IgM and IgG.
No full textThe combination of marked hypersideremia, hypertransferrinemia, and monoclonal gammopathy of underdetermined significance (MGUS) should alert clinicians to the possible presence of an anti-transferrin immunoglobulin, an uncommon acquired disorder also defined as transferrin-immune complex disease (TICD). The authors have previously described a case of TICD with 100% transferrin saturation and liver iron overload. However, the findings in the few cases so far reported are heterogeneous, and the presence of high transferrin saturation and liver iron overload is not universal. In this article, the authors have described the identification of two additional patients with anti-transferrin monoclonal gammopathy, hypersideremia, and hypertransferrinemia, but with incomplete transferrin saturation and no hepatic iron overload. The autoantibodies were purified by using transferrin as affinity bait and characterized. One subject showed a high-titer monoclonal anti-transferrin IgM with a κ-type light chain. This finding is the first observation of IgM autoantibodies against transferrin. The other patient developed the disease after pregnancy. In this study, monoclonal antibody was an IgG mounting a κ-type light chain with altered molecular weight. These results highlight that transferrin might induce the development of a monoclonal immune response of different classes and specificity. The identification, in a single hematologic center, of three different subjects with anti-transferrin monoclonal gammopathy suggests that the disease probably represents a still underdiagnosed condition. From a clinical standpoint, these patients must be followed up both as MGUS and as hemochromatosis
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
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