1,720,985 research outputs found
Circumferential versus longitudinal systolic function in patients with hypertension: a non linear relation
No full textAbstract
BACKGROUND: Depressed circumferential midwall performance and impaired left ventricular (LV) longitudinal function are both early markers of LV systolic dysfunction in patients with hypertension. The relation between midwall and longitudinal indices in these patients has never been analyzed.
METHODS: In 126 patients with hypertension, midwall fractional shortening (mFS), stress-corrected mFS, M-mode left atrioventricular plane displacement, and tissue Doppler-derived peak mitral annular systolic velocity were determined.
RESULTS: Regression analysis showed that the relations of midwall indices to atrioventricular plane displacement and mitral annular systolic velocity were all nonlinear. Reductions in atrioventricular plane displacement or mitral annular systolic velocity within their higher ranges corresponded to relatively smaller decreases in mFS and stress-corrected mFS. Relative wall thickness was the strongest determinant of the relative efficiency of circumferential and longitudinal LV contraction.
CONCLUSION: The relation between circumferential midwall and longitudinal function in patients with hypertension is nonlinear and dependent on LV geometry. In these patients, systolic impairment occurs earlier in longitudinal than circumferential performanc
Casual diagnosis of abdominal aorta aneurysm during transthoracic echocardiographic test: Clinical case and literature review
No full textAbdominal aorta aneurysm (AAA) is a silent pathology and, almost always, runs in a hidden way to the casual diagnosis or to the clinical manifestation of serious complications such as arterial rupture or peripheral embolization. It's therefore basic to use screening methods assuring high rate of preventive diagnosis. At the present time the most part of the abdominal aorta aneurysms is casually diagnosed during abdominal echography, only rarely for a specific clinical suspect. Rapidly evaluating the abdominal aorta (AA) diameters during the transthoracic echocardiographic test could represent, with a minimum increase of the test length, an efficacious screening of this disease. We are showing here a typical clinical case of casual diagnosis of AAA during an echocardiographic test on a patient with many risk factors. © 2005 Pharma Project Group srl
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
Safety and efficacy evaluation of albumin-bound paclitaxel
No full textIntroduction: Nanoparticle albumin-bound paclitaxel (nab-paclitaxel) is a novel solvent-free formulation of paclitaxel, which was developed to avoid toxicities associated with Cremophor EL vehicle used in solvent-based paclitaxel.
It is approved as monotherapy for treatment of metastatic breast cancer (MBC) in Europe and the US; in combination therapy for non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and for first-line treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer (PC) only in the US. The European Medicines Agency has recently released only a positive opinion for use of nab-paclitaxel in PC.
Areas covered: This review reports the clinical findings and the safety data of nab-paclitaxel for MBC, NSCLC and PC.
Expert opinion: In MBC, nab-paclitaxel has demonstrated a good safety and an efficacy profile compared with other taxanes, but no strong data on overall survival are available. Considering the role of markers or predictive factors for nab-paclitaxel effectiveness in the metastatic setting would be useful. In PC, nab-paclitaxel and gemcitabine represent a new therapeutic choice with
significant improvement in survival. In a Phase III study with NSCLC patients, nab-paclitaxel showed better results in a subgroup of patients with squamous histology, for whom results with conventional therapies are still poor and
improved therapeutic options are needed
Impact of obesity on left ventricular systolic function in hypertensive subjects with normal ejection fraction
No full textWe sought to investigate the potential impact of obesity on left ventricular (LV) systolic function in patients with hypertension and normal ejection fraction (EF). In 112 hypertensive subjects with echocardiographic evidence of normal EF, M-mode left atrio-ventricular plane displacement, and Tissue Doppler-derived peak systolic velocity of the mitral annulus were measured and used as sensitive indices of longitudinal LV systolic dysfunction. The midwall stress-shortening relation was considered as a sensitive load-independent measure of circumferential LV myocardial contractility. There were no differences in either atrio-ventricular plane displacement or peak systolic velocity between normal weight, overweight, and obese subjects. In contrast, circumferential myocardial contractility tended to be reduced in overweight (90.3+/-14.4%) and was significantly depressed in obese (85.9+/-14.3%) as compared to normal weight individuals (95.3+/-14.8%; P=0.042). Multivariate analysis confirmed an independent negative association between body mass index (BMI) and myocardial contractility. The impact of BMI category on circumferential function did not differ between the study population and age- and gender-matched controls, suggesting additive interaction, rather than synergistic, between overweight-obesity and hypertension
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
Assessment of left ventricular diastolic events interrelations: an integrated approach
No full textBackground:
Left ventricular (LV) diastolic function represents a complex performance that involves long axis displacement, myocardial lengthening velocities as well as cavity filling. The aim of this study was to assess the various diastolic event interrelations in a group of patients with different degrees of diastolic dysfunction.
Methods:
128 consecutive subjects with various degrees of diastolic impairment were studied by Doppler echocardiography. The amplitude of early diastolic (El) and late diastolic (Al) long axis lengthening was measured by M-mode and corresponding myocardial velocities (Ea and Aa) by Tissue Doppler. LV filling velocities were also acquired by spectral pulsed wave Doppler.
Results:
Early diastolic long axis amplitudes and velocities correlated (r = 0.73, P 17.3 cm/s/mm had 94.1% sensitivity and 87.4% specificity for predicting an E/Ea ratio > 15, a marker for raised LV filling pressures. El ≤ 6.8 mm, total amplitude of diastolic motion (El + Al) ≤ 11.5 mm, and E/El > 14.2 cm/s/mm were the best criteria to discriminate between normal diastolic function and pseudonormal/restrictive LV filling.
Conclusion:
Diastolic LV components of motion, amplitude and velocities are not independent, neither from each other nor from filling pressures. An integrated approach towards using them all in assessing diastolic function, particularly in patients with raised filling pressure should be of great clinical value
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