1,720,958 research outputs found
RETROGRADE INTRA RENAL SURGERY FOR RENAL STONES
No full textIntroduction and Objectives: Urolithiasis affects 5–15% of the population during their lives. Stone recurrence rate can be as high as 50% during life. The improvement of mininvasive techniques led to an important decrease of the open surgery, nowadays unnecessary in most cases. Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) was introduced in the 1980s as a revolutionary technique to fragment renal and ureteral calculi. Due to ESWL limits, other mininvasive techniques were performed to treat renal calculi such as percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) and retrograde intrarenal surgery (RIRS). Today the boundary between the indications of this three procedures is not well defined, especially considering patients with multiple stone relapses who undergo many sessions of treatment during their lives.
The purposes of this study are to evaluate effectiveness and safety of RIRS; to assess its potential use as first line treatment of renal medium-sized stones (10–20mm); to set RIRS in the management of people prone to multi stone recurrences. Material and Methods: This prospective study considered 35 renal stone patients who underwent RIRS in our department. In this study we analysed location, number and diameter of renal calculi using the conventional imaging methods and their composition. We evaluated the different surgical instrumentation necessary to obtain successful result, type and length of the ureteral stenting, number of hospitalization days, intra and post-operative complications of the treatment. RIRS results were evaluated after three months with abdominal ultrasound and plain abdominal x-ray.
Results: Stone free rate was achieved in 63% and 80% after single procedure and retreatment respectively. Single calculus were treated more successfully (83%) than multiple stones (41%) (p = 0.002). RIRS results and stone dimension are related with statistic significance (p = 0.004): retrograde intrarenal surgery is able to dissolve with higher success renal calculi smaller than 20 mm. 7% of treatments had post-operative complications. We did not find statistically significant differences in efficacy and safety between patients with renal stone relapse and patients with their first episode of calculi disease.
Conclusions: RIRS is an effective and safe procedure to treat renal calculi. It may be considered as the first-line therapy to treat renal stones smaller than 20mm. It may be the first option to manage patients with multiple stone relapses. They are suggested to take an intensive follow up in order to diagnose and treat renal stones when they are still smaller than 20 mm
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
The Endourological Treatment of Renal Matrix Stones
No full textObjective: To report our experience with the endourological treatment of renal matrix stones, an infrequent form of urinary calculi whose diagnosis and treatment are often difficult. Methods: From 1990 to 2010 we treated 9 female patients with matrix calculi using the endourological approach; 4 presented with renal colics, 3 with symptomatic urinary tract infection and 2 with asymptomatic bacteriuria. Six patients underwent percutaneous lithotripsy and 3 retrograde intrarenal surgery as first-line therapy. Three cases needed a multidisciplinary approach. Results: The six percutaneous procedures were successful after a single session, while the retrograde approach required multiple treatments; a single case needed a shock wave session to complete the fragmentation, in another one a percutaneous lithotripsy was necessary after the first procedure, and a third case needed multidisciplinary treatment. Conclusions: Percutaneous lithotripsy has been confirmed as the first option for matrix stones. The retrograde approach - by confirming the suspected diagnosis and being minimally invasive - may be employed to treat either lower-size stones or stones at high risk of recurrence
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
Critical analysis of phase II and III randomised control trials (RCTs) evaluating efficacy and tolerability of a β3-adrenoceptor agonist (Mirabegron) for overactive bladder (OAB)
No full textTo critically analyse available phase II and III randomised control trials (RCTs) reporting clinical data about the efficacy and tolerability of Mirabegron (a β3-adrenoceptor agonist) in the treatment of overactive bladder (OAB) syndrome. A review of the literature was performed in September 2013 using the MEDLINE database. A 'free text' protocol was used for the search strategy using 'overactive bladder' and 'Mirabegron' as keywords. Subsequently, the searches were pooled and limited to phase II and III RCTs. Two phase II and five phase III RCTs were selected and analysed. The available phase II studies showed the efficacy and tolerability of different doses of Mirabegron compared with placebo. Moreover, a dose-ranging study showed that 50mg once daily should be considered the most promising dose for clinical use. The 12-week phase III studies confirmed the effectiveness of Mirabegron to significantly reduce the mean number of incontinence episodes/24h and the mean number of micturitions/24h compared with placebo. A post hoc analysis confirmed that favourable results with Mirabegron were reported both in patients with OAB who were antimuscarinic naïve and in those who had discontinued prior antimuscarinic therapy. Moreover, a phase III trial showed the safety and tolerability of 12-month treatment of Mirabegron. Discontinuation due to adverse events was low both using the 50 and 100mg dose of Mirabegron. Mirabegron is the first of a new class of drugs for the treatment of OAB able to influence non-voiding activity and produce an increased storage capacity and inter-void interval. Recently published phase II and III RCTs have shown that the β3-adrenoceptor-selective agonist, Mirabegron, is an effective and safe drug for the symptomatic treatment of OAB syndrome. Mirabegron represents a valid medical option both for patients with OAB who are antimuscarinic naïve, as well as in those where antimuscarinics are ineffective or not tolerated. © 2014 The Authors
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
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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