1,720,962 research outputs found
Severe hypercalcemia associated with hypophosphatemia in very premature infants: a case report
No full textBackground: Severe hypercalcemia is rare in newborns; even though often asymptomatic, it may have important sequelae. Hypophosphatemia can occur in infants experiencing intrauterine malnutrition, sepsis and early high-energy parenteral nutrition (PN) and can cause severe hypercalcemia through an unknown mechanism. Monitoring and supplementation of phosphate (PO4) and calcium (Ca) in the first week of life in preterm infants are still debated. Case presentation: We report on a female baby born at 29 weeks’ gestation with intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) experiencing sustained severe hypercalcemia (up to 24 mg/dl corrected Ca) due to hypophosphatemia while on phosphorus-free PN. Hypercalcemia did not improve after hyperhydration and furosemide but responded to infusion of PO4. Eventually, the infant experienced symptomatic hypocalcaemia (ionized Ca 3.4 mg/dl), likely exacerbated by contemporary infusion of albumin. Subsequently, a normalization of both parathyroid hormone (PTH) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) was observed. Conclusions: Although severe hypercalcemia is extremely rare in neonates, clinicians should be aware of the possible occurrence of this life-threatening condition in infants with or at risk to develop hypophosphatemia. Hypophosphatemic hypercalcemia can only be managed with infusion of PO4, with strict monitoring of Ca and PO4 concentrations
Robotic Hysterectomy as a Step of Gender Affirmative Surgery in Female-to-Male Patients
No full textIntroduction: To evaluate the feasibility and safety of robotic hysterectomy in the “transgender male/non-conforming” population and the short and long-term surgical outcomes of robotic surgery in these patients. Materials and methods: A retrospective analysis was carried out from February 2016 to January 2018. Twenty female transgender patients with a previous psychiatric diagnosis of gender dysphoria who did not present genital pathologies were included in the study. The robotic hysterectomies were performed from June 2016 to March 2018 using a Da Vinci Xi Robot (Intuitive Surgical, Sunnyvale, CA, USA). Results: No intraoperative or postoperative complications were recorded. The median duration of the intervention was of 90 minutes, including docking which lasted 16 minutes, while the median stay in the operating room was of 140 minutes. The median time of duration of intervention was of 90 minutes. The median blood loss was about 90 ml with a percentage decrease in hemoglobin between pre- and post-operative of about 8%. Postoperative pain was assessed using the VAS scale in the immediate postoperative period, on the first and second day, resulting of 3 and 2, respectively. The pathological examination of surgical specimens confirmed the absence of malignancy. Conclusions: The robotic approach represents a feasible, safe, and effective surgical option for hysterectomy for “transgender male” affected by gender dysphoria
Perforated Transverse Vaginal Septum in a Virgin Patient: A Hymen-sparing Hysteroscopic-ultrasound–guided Approach
No full textHysteroscopic Intact Removal of an Angular Pregnancy with a 5Fr Electrode
No full textStudy Objective: Angular pregnancy is a rare and life-threatening condition in which the embryo is implanted in the lateral angle of the uterine cavity, medial to the uterotubal junction and round ligament. Angular pregnancy is associated with a high risk of uterine rupture of about 23% [1]. No consensus has been achieved regarding the diagnostic and therapeutic approach of angular pregnancy [2]. Thus, the aim of this study was to report a case of hysteroscopic treatment of an angular pregnancy in a 34-year-old women. Design: Step-by-step video presentation of the surgical treatment (Canadian Task Force classification III). Setting: Department of Neuroscience, Reproductive Sciences and Dentistry, School of Medicine, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy. Patient: A 34-year-old woman. Written informed consent was obtained from the patient. Intervention: Hysteroscopy. Measurements and Main Results: A 34-year-old woman was admitted to our Department with pelvic pain at 6 weeks of gestation. β-Human chorionic gonadotropin (β-hCG) was 5331 mIU/mL. The transvaginal ultrasound showed a gestational sac of 15 × 11 mm in the left uterine angle of an embryo without cardiac activity. The woman opted for a conservative approach with multiple-dose methotrexate [3]. Five days later the β-hCG increased to 7589 mIU/mL with no regression of pregnancy at the transvaginal ultrasound. Therefore, a surgical approach was offered to the patient [4,5]. Laparoscopy showed normal salpinges, whereas hysteroscopy identified the gestational sac in the left uterine angle. A 5Fr bipolar electrode was used to open the gestational capsular decidua. The chorionic villi were progressively separated from the implantation site. Using grasping forceps we removed the specimen for histologic examination. Histologic examination confirmed the diagnosis of angular pregnancy. On the second postoperative day β-hCG was 1131 mIU/mL, and the patient was discharged the day after. At the 1-month follow-up visit, β-hCG and transvaginal ultrasound were negative for pregnancy. The office hysteroscopy showed an empty uterine cavity at 3-months’ follow-up. Conclusion: Our case shows that hysteroscopy may be used as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool for angular pregnancy, providing a unique image of the intact removal of the gestational sac
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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