1,720,969 research outputs found
Urine particles examination: comparison of automated flow citometer UF-1000i and manual quantitative microscopy
No full textAim. Some automated instruments examining urine sediment have been introduced. We compared the performance of Sysmex UF-1000i with manual microscopy in urine particles examination.
Methods. 15 urine samples were selected. Urine sediments were examined by manual microscopy by using Fuchs-Rosenthal chamber and UF-1000i analyzer.
Results. The within-run CVs for urine samples ranged from 0.8% to 23.1% for the UF-1000i. The agreement between methods was good for red blood cells and white blood cells counts based on r values of 0.99, for epithelial cell the r value was 0.98 and 0.87 for casts.
Conclusion. This automated urinalysis system demonstrated good concordance with manual quantitative microscopy. Thus, when combined with urine chemistry analysis, this analyzer might provide a rapid and accurate screening tool in routine urine analysis
Cutoff values for bacteria and leukocytes for urine flow cytometer Sysmex UF-1000i in urinary tract infections.
No full textBecause urinary tract infections (UTIs) are a quite common disease, the gold standard for diagnosing UTIs is still bacterial culture, although a large percentage of samples are negative: unnecessary cultures can be reduced by means of an effective screening test. The analytic performance of a new urine cytometer, the UF-1000i, has been tested on 1463 urine samples submitted to our laboratory for culture. Bacteria and leukocyte counts have been compared by means of the UF-1000i with colony-forming unit (CFU) quantification on citrate lactose electrolytes deficient agar to assess the best cutoff values. By using quantitative cultures and considering as positive a sample with 10 x 10(5) CFU/mL, 546 positive samples (37%) were observed. If compared with 10 x 10(5) CFU/mL, the cutoff values obtained were 125 bacteria/microL and 40 leukocytes/ microL, respectively. Analytic parameters such as sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and correctly classified incidence were satisfactory. Based on the results obtained in this study, when using the UF-1000i analyzer for a screening test for UTI, a cutoff value of 40 white blood cells/microL should be adopted. The cutoff value for bacteria should be 125/microL for those clinical conditions in which 10 x 10(5) CFU/mL indicates a positivity
Heart failure in frail elderly resident in a nurse house: Prognostic significance of a multimarker approach
No full textBackground: Heart failure (HF) has been defined a modern pandemic. The complex array of physiologic, psychological, social and health care delivery issues makes it a challenging chronic disease to manage. Our study thus aimed to evaluate a multi-marker approach to assess prognosis of HF. Methods: We considered 202 elderly in the nursing home in Chioggia (Venice, Italy). Each subject underwent clinical evaluation, echocardiography, determination of high sensitivity troponin I (hs-TnI), galectin-3 (GAL), cystatin C (CYS) and brain natriuretic peptides (BNP) by routine methods. These subjects were followed for 24 months after their inclusion in the study and during this period overall mortality was recorded. Results: After a 24-month follow-up (FU) the overall mortality was 41.6%. In these patients' series raised biomarkers serum concentration constituted a significant hazard ratio: 3.83 for BNP, 3.24 for CYS, 5.65 for GAL and 5,76 for hs-TnI. A poorest prognosis was observed in subjects with raised concentration for multiple biomarkers. Conclusions: In the considered population, BNP, CYS, GAL and hs-TnI were independently associated with higher risk of negative outcome. In addition, according to our experience, the simultaneous dosage of the four considered biomarkers improves the correlation with the prognosis. Further studies in similar populations are needed to confirm our results
Evaluation of a multimarkers approach in the diagnosis of heart failure in geriatrics subjects
No full textBackground: Heart failure (HF) has been defined a modern pandemic. The complex array of physiologic, psychological, social and health care delivery issues makes it a challenging chronic disease to manage. Our study thus sought to evaluate a multi markers approach in diagnosis of HF. Methods: 68 Italian males with age over 65 years were considered: 25 patients with HF; 18 repeat blood donors and 25 subjects recruited in a medical examination for not competitive sports activities. In these subjects determination of high sensitivity troponin I (HS-TNI), galectin (GAL), cystatin (CYS) and brain natriuretic peptide were performed by using routine methods. Results: Among HF patients with heart failure mean concentration HS-TNI, GAL, CYS and BNP was significantly higher than values observed in blood donors and not competitive sports activities. In this study, for differentiation of HF patients and blood donor or not competitive sports activities subjects, better parameters were GAL (CCI 0.97) and BNP (CCI 0.93). Conclusions: Our study showed the usefulness of a strategy involving multiple biomarkers determination in laboratory diagnosis of heart failure in elderly males
Laboratory diagnosis of renal failure: urine conductivity and tubular function.
No full textAIM: Conductivity is a measure of a material's ability to conduct an electric current and it works thanks to movable charges. Conductivity in urine is directly proportional to ionic contents. The aim of this study was to evaluate the significance of urine conductivity by using the Sismex UF-100 analyser in correlations with other surrogate parameters of osmolality and renal diuresis, relative density, electrolytes and creatinine concentration.
METHODS:
For this study 140 urine samples were submitted for diagnostic urinalysis to the Clinical Pathology laboratory. Samples were collected from 70 healthy subjects, 42 diabetics with poor metabolic control and significant glicosuria, 28 patients with monoclonal gammopathy of uncertain significance, with significant proteinuria. All the samples were assessed for conductivity (UF-100 Sysmex), relative density (refract meter Zeiss), sodium, potassium, chlorine, creatinine, urea, glucose, protein (Olympus AU-2700).
RESULTS:
Urine conductivity appears to be related to ionic concentration but not to glucose and/or protein presence.
CONCLUSIONS:
This study results suggest that conductivity determination should be useful in diabetic patients to study the tubular function minimising interferences due to osmotic action of glucose
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
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