1,721,054 research outputs found
Murea: A multi-resolution evidence accumulation method for robot localization in known environments
No full textSapere tecnico-scientifico, discrezionalità politica e margini d'azione per le Corti
No full textLo scritto verte sul rapporto tra dato scientifico e discrezionalità legislativa, da un lato, e dato scientifico e margine d'azione per le Corti, dall'altro, alla luce della giurisprudenza costituzionale in materia
INTER-PTERYGOID DISTANCE AS A PREDICTOR OF SUCCESS IN MODIFIED EXPANSION SPHINCTER PHARYNGOPLASTY
No full textIntroduction
Modified expansion sphincter pharyngoplasty (MESP) is a novel surgical technique designed to improve both retro-palatal
collapse and lateral pharyngeal wall stability in OSAS patients. Although no plane indications for this procedure have been
reported in the literature, the current main indications are retro-palatal obstruction and lateral pharyngeal collapse pattern.
Objective
The aim of the study was to identify possible clinical indicators of post-operative success.
Methods
Data of patients undergoing MESP at our institution were collected prospectively during the period february 2009 – October
2011 and included clinical features, sleep endoscopy features, Cephalometric measures, CT scan measures, pre and postoperative
polysomnographic data. Success was defined as RDI<15 in patients without co-morbidity and RDI<5 in patients with
co-morbidity. Univariate analysis was conducted to identify possible predictors of success. Pearson correlation between
continuous clinical variables and reduction of the preoperative RDI were explored as well.
Results
39 patients underwent MESP alone and 30 patients MESP plus hyoid suspension. Total success rate was 65.8% (patients not
requiring CPAP). No single predictor of success resulted from univariate analysis. Pre-operative RDI (p<0.001), pre-operative
supine AHI (p=0.001), tonsil grade (p=0.001) and inter-pterygoid distance measured on CT scan (p=0.008) showed a
significant direct correlation with the post-operative RDI improvement. Age showed a significant inverse correlation with RDI
improvement (p=0.038). Interestingly, inter-pterygoid distance maintained a significant correlation with RDI improvement
when controlled for hyoid suspension, tonsil grade, age, supine AHI and preoperative RDI.
Conclusions
No significant predictors of success were identified. However, several variables appear significantly correlated to the postoperative
RDI improvement. Among these, inter-pterygoid distance measured on CT scan is a promising lateral anatomical
parameter not commonly assessed in the routine diagnostic workup, that may be included in the selection criteria of patients
fitting the current clinical indications for MESP. Further study on a wider population is needed to confirm these results and to
validate a cut-off value for the clinical practice
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
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