1,720,975 research outputs found
Ultrasonographic scores and histopathology correlations in primary Sjögren’s syndrome
Get PDFTitle: Ultrasonographic scores and histopathology correlations in primary Sjögren’s syndrome
Introduction:
Primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS) is a chronic systemic autoimmune disease characterized by
exocrine glands involvement, leading to sicca symptoms. The glandular damage exposes pSS patients to an increased risk of lymphoproliferative disease.
The diagnostic approach relies on a set of clinical, laboratory, imaging and histopathological features, and salivary gland biopsy is considered the gold standard tool, playing a key role in the classification criteria for pSS.
Even if not included in the pSS classification criteria, salivary gland ultrasonography is emerging as a valuable complement tool to histopathology, allowing the identification of alterations suspicious for pSS disease and for lymphoma. However, the correlation between histopathological and ultrasonographic features remains incompletely elucidated in the literature.
Aim of the study is to analyze the correlation between the ultrasonographic and histological features of major salivary glands in terms of inflammatory infiltrate, fibrosis, and presence of adipose tissue.
Methods: Adult patients with pSS and a clinical indication for major salivary gland biopsy between September 2018 and October 2023 were selected for this study. All patients underwent major salivary gland ultrasonography and performed a major salivary gland biopsy. For each histopathological sample, the evaluation included the presence of lymphoepithelial lesions (LELs), germinal centers (GCs), adipose replacement area and focus score, as well as the presence of Multiple Focal Lymphocytic Sialadenitis/ Lymphoepithelial Sialadenitis (MESA/LESA). Each ultrasound image is assessed according to the Hocevar and OMERACT scoring method.
Results:
63 patients were included in this study. Correlations between ultrasonography and histopathological features were registered. The 0-48 Hocevar score was correlated to the presence of GCs (p=0.009). Aiming at a direct comparison between histopathological findings and the ultrasonographic score of the same major salivary gland, we compare the ultrasonographic score of the biopsied gland with the histopathological results. The gland specific Hocevar score and the OMERACT score both showed correlation with the presence of LELs and GCs (p=0.004 and p<0.001, respectively).
Focusing on patients without pSS complication (i.e. lymphoma patients), we reported significant correlation between Hocevar score and LELs and MESA/LESA (p=0.05). Analysing in this cohort the direct comparison between histopathological findings and ultrasonographic score (Hocevar and OMERACT score) of the same salivary gland, we reported associations with LELs and GCs in both scoring system.
Conclusion:
The ultrasonographic scores of patients with pSS correlate with histopathological features, notably LELs and GCs, which are typical characteristics of pSS. This study suggests the potential utility of SGUS as an alternative for histopathological examination
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Get PDFWe 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
Normal-Appearing Salivary Gland Ultrasonography Identifies a Milder Phenotype of Primary Sjögren's Syndrome
Get PDFObjective: Salivary gland ultrasound (SGUS) is emerging as a valid tool in the management of primary Sjogren's syndrome (pSS). This study aimed to investigate whether pSS patients with normal-appearing or pathological SGUS findings showed different clinical, laboratory, and pathologic pSS-related features, and to compare the results by using two different SGUS scores.Methods: Consecutive pSS patients, according to the ACR-EULAR classification criteria, were evaluated. Salivary glands were scored using the early 1992 score by De Vita et al. and the latest 2019 OMERACT score, both being semiquantitative 0-3 scoring systems focused on ultrasonographic parenchymal inhomogeneity (grades 0 and 1, normal-appearing; grades 2 and 3, pathological). The patients were then divided into two groups: "SGUS normal-appearing" if all the salivary glands had normal-appearing parenchyma (grade 0 or 1), or "SGUS pathological" if the grade was 2 or 3 in at least one salivary gland. The associations between SGUS and pSS-related clinical, laboratory, and pathological features were then investigated in the two groups.Results: One hundred pSS patients were evaluated, the mean age (+/- SD) was 60.9 +/- 12.0 years, and mean disease duration was 11.7 +/- 7.2 years. Twenty-nine out of 100 (29%) patients were in the "SGUS normal-appearing" group and 71/100 (71%) were in the "SGUS pathological" group. A normal-appearing SGUS was significantly associated with the absence of anti-La/SSB antibodies (p < 0.001) and normal unstimulated salivary flow rate (p = 0.02) by both univariate and multivariate analyses. By univariate analysis, a normal-appearing SGUS was significantly associated also with the absence of rheumatoid factor (p = 0.002) and of serum monoclonal component (p = 0.003), ESSDAI < 5 (p = 0.03), and with a negative lip biopsy (p = 0.029). No associations were found with other items, including anti-Ro/SSA (p = 0.145), Schirmer's test (p = 0.793), ESSPRI (p = 0.47), and demographic data. No differences in these results were observed by using the two SGUS scoring systems.Conclusion: The SGUS allowed the identification of different phenotypes of pSS, and different SGUS scores focused on salivary gland inhomogeneity may be effective to this end
Nail ultrasonography for psoriatic arthritis and psoriasis patients: a systematic literature review
No full textTo systematically review the role of ultrasound (US) in the assessment of the joint-enthesial-nail apparatus in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) or psoriasis (PSO) in terms of prevalence, diagnosis, prognosis, monitoring and treatment. A systematic literature review was conducted through medical databases (PubMed, Embase) and the grey literature up to February 2018. The main areas of application of nail US were first identified, allowing the development of research questions, which were rephrased following the PICOs methodology to develop inclusion criteria. Of the 585 studies produced by PubMed and Embase searches, 17 studies met the criteria for inclusion. Five additional studies were included: 1 from the hand search and 4 from the 2016-2017 ACR and EULAR congresses. The prevalence of nail plate changes varied from < 10 to 97%, for power Doppler signal from 20-30 to 96% and distal interphalangeal joint (DIJ) involvement from 8.9 to 100%. The performance of US nail/DIJ abnormalities in the diagnosis of PsA and PSO elementary lesions was analysed by five studies, with a wide heterogeneity. Reproducibility and reliability of US nil/DIJ were assessed by interclass correlation coefficient or Cohen's k and their values ranged from 0.6 to 0.9. The value of US nail/DIJ in the monitoring of the lesions was analysed only by a single study. The analysis revealed applications for US nail/DIJ in PsA and PSO and highlights limitations. Validation is strongly needed to demonstrate its appropriateness in the clinical practice and to define its diagnostic and prognostic role
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