1,720,972 research outputs found
L'esame del polso arterioso : dall'oblio alla rinascita?
No full textIt seems reasonable to suppose that there is some relationship between the fanciful descriptions of arterial pulse dating back to ancient times and the more sophisticated data stemming from the technological advances of recent years. The clinical evidence derived from "the flowing blood" has always been associated with diseases of the heart and vessels and indeed of apparently unrelated organs, as well as with emotional states. Centuries before the Christian era, Chinese and Indian doctors seat great store by the study of the pulse which was described in imaginative terms and considered a clue to a person's character and illnesses. This subject was just as important to Greeks and Romans: to mention just one famous name Galeno, who wrote extensively about pulses. Up to the 18th century many European Universities had chairs entitled: "De pulsibus et urines" and from this time onwards sphygmic doctrine gained an ever-growing space in the scientific literature in the attempt to establish diagnostic and prognostic connections (often rather whimsical ones) between different kinds of pulses and so-called "crises of cerebral, thoracic and abdominal organs". Between the mid 18th century and the end of the 19th century the study of pulses was mainly focused on identifying arrhythmias and valvular defects even though we still find descriptions of "alternating" and "paradoxical" pulses accompanied by somewhat ambiguous explanations. From the second half of the 20th century the possibility of measuring the pulse wave velocity and the "augmentation index" has led to remarkable advances in epidemiological studies of cardiovascular diseases. This work would like to draw the readers' attention to the relevance a simple semeiological practice such as the examination of the pulse still has in the clinical approach to a patient even in these modern times
Effect of treatment with 17alpha-alkylated androgens on C4 conversion products in hereditary angioedemastudied by crossed immunoelectrophoresis
No full textDuring agarose electrophoresis C4 in the normal human serum is converted into cleavage products of Beta 1 and Beta 2 mobility. By contrast in the serum of untreated patients with hereditary angiodema C4 gives only one Beta 2 peak on crossed immunoelectrophoresis. The normal C4 electrophoretic pattern is restored in serum of patients treated with stanazolol but not with danazol despite the same C1-esterase inhibitor (C1 INH) activities and C4 serum concentration. We suggest that stanazolol besides having specific effect on C1 INH activity can interfere with other protease inhibitors affecting C1 activation
Immunoreactive Precipitation of C1 Inhibitor Protein from Plasma of Normal Subjects and of Patients with Hereditary Angioedema after Isoelectric Focusing
Full text linkPeer Reviewe
Infusion of C1-inhibitor plasma concentrate prevents hyperamylasemia induced by endoscopic sphincterotomy
No full textHyperamylasemia after endoscopic sphincterotomy is a common event, occurring in about 70% of cases. Clinical acute pancreatitis may also develop in 1% to 6% of cases. Previous attempts to prevent this reaction with inhibitors of exocrine pancreatic secretion (somatostatin and octreotide) provided conflicting and often disappointing results. Kallikrein is one of the proteases that sustain the inflammatory process in acute pancreatitis; the C1 inhibitor is the only physiologic inhibitor of the first component of the human complement cascade and is a major inactivator of kallikrein and Factor XII. Therefore, we tested the C1 inhibitor in the prevention of hyperamylasemia in 40 consecutive patients undergoing endoscopic sphincterotomy for common bile duct stones or benign papillary stenosis. They were given either C1 inhibitor (20 cases) or placebo (20 cases) before the procedure. Serum amylase levels were determined at baseline and 2, 4, 8, and 24 hours thereafter. Significant differences in serum amylase levels between groups were observed at 2 hours (p < .01), 4 hours (p < .0005), and 8 hours (p < .005) after sphincterotomy. The differences in amylase levels were also significant among the 24 subjects with pancreatic ductal filling (2 hours, p < .05; 4 hours, p < .005; 8 hours, p < .01) and the 9 patients with previous episodes of acute pancreatitis (4 hours, p < .05; 8 hours, p < .05; 24 hours, p < .05). The infusion of C1-inhibitor plasma concentrate resulted in a 50% increase in functional levels of C1 inhibitor (in the 8 cases for whom they were assayed), which persisted throughout the observation period
Peripheral treatment with enoxaparin, a low molecular weight heparin, reduces plaques and beta-amyloid accumulation in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease
No full textWe investigated the effect of long-term, peripheral treatment with enoxaparin, a low molecular weight heparin, in transgenic mice overexpressing human amyloid precursor protein751. Enoxaparin (6 IU per mouse intraperitoneally, three times a week for 6 months) significantly lowered the number and the area occupied by cortical β-amyloid deposits and the total β-amyloid (1-40) cortical concentration. Immunocytochemical analysis of glial fibrillary acid protein-positive cells showed that enoxaparin markedly reduced the number of activated astrocytes surrounding β-amyloid deposits. In vitro, the drug dose-dependently attenuated the toxic effect of β-amyloid on neuronal cells. Enoxaparin dose-dependently reduced the ability of β-amyloid to activate complement and contact systems, two powerful effectors of inflammatory response in AD brain. By reducing the β-amyloid load and cytotoxicity and proinflammatory activity, enoxaparin offers promise as a tool for slowing the progression of Alzheimer's disease
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
- …
