1,720,962 research outputs found
Diagnostic impact of ultrasonography in abdominal diseases
No full textThe diagnostic accuracy of conventional radiography and ultrasound (US) in patients with acute or chronic abdominal pain was investigated by the authors in two prospective studies to assess the capabilities of the two imaging techniques. 262 patients (135 men and 127 women, age range: 25-83 years) were entered into the study within 8 months. The patients were divided into different groups according to clinical presentation (80 patients with acute and 182 with chronic pain) and to the referring physician (a hospital clinician for 127 patients and a general practitioner for 135 patients). For each technique the presence (positive result) or the absence (negative result) of abnormal imaging features related to clinical symptoms was recorded and the agreement of conventional radiography and US findings was assessed. Statistical analysis showed similar sensitivity of conventional radiography and US in the examination of acute hospitalized patients (54.3% positive results), chronic hospitali..
Circulating endothelial stem cells are not decreased in pulmonary emphysema or COPD
No full textPrevious studies have suggested a role for an increased apoptosis of the endothelial cells in the pulmonary capillaries of the alveolar septa in the pathogenesis of human pulmonary emphysema.1 In animal models, circulating endothelial stem cells, characterised by the concomitant expression of CD34+, CD133 and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGF-R2), may contribute to the repair of lung damage.2 However, it is unknown if a decrease in the blood of these stem cells may contribute to the pathogenesis of pulmonary emphysema in humans. The aim of our study was to investigate by flow cytometry the number of total (CD34+) and endothelial stem (triple positive for CD34+/CD133/VEGF-R2) cells in the peripheral venous blood of current and former smokers, of similar age, with or without pulmonary emphysema. Our study was approved by the local ethics committee of the University Hospital of Ferrara, and written informed consent was obtained from each participant in accordance with the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki. All the recruited subjects were free from concomitant diseases or drugs able to interfere with the number of circulating stem cells. Venous blood samples from 37 subjects (mean age: 66.8±1.4, 25M/12F, mean 33.11±3.2 pack-years, 12 current and 25 ex-smokers) were obtained. All former smokers had stopped smoking for more than one year. Twenty-two subjects (59.5%) had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to the criteria of the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease guidelines3 (mean post-bronchodilator FEV1/FVC ratio=56.8%±2.7) whereas 39.5% (n=15) had normal lung function (FEV1/FVC ratio=77.1%±1.4). The presence and the severity of pulmonary emphysema was determined using high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) scans of the chest with density mask and the National Emphysema Treatment Trial Research Group score (0 to 4). 4 The mean HRCT score of our subjects was 1.7±0.4. Blood sampling and flow cytometry were performed as previously described.5 Briefly quantification of peripheral blood CD34+ cells was performed with double labelling, with FITC-anti-CD45 and phycoerythrin-anti-CD34 monoclonal antibodies (Becton Dickinson) on a FACSCalibur flow cytometer (Becton Dickinson) according to standardised procedures. Enumeration of endothelial stem cells was performed as CD34+ cells coexpressing CD133 and VEGF-2. It was performed on immunomagnetically purified peripheral blood CD34+ cells (Miltenyi Biotech) by triple labelling with peridinin chlorophyll protein-conjugated anti-CD34, phycoerythrin-conjugated anti-CD133 (Miltenyi Biotech), and unconjugated anti-VEGFR-2 (Santa Cruz Biotechnology), followed by FITC-conjugated swine anti-rabbit (Dako) as secondary reagent. We found a significant correlation between the absolute number of circulating CD34+ cells and the absolute number of circulating endothelial stem cells. Also there was a significant correlation between the percentage of circulating endothelial stem cells and the number of pack-years smoked. No significant correlation was found between total and endothelial stem cells number and HRCT score of pulmonary emphysema lung function data or smoking status (current vs ex smokers). These data indicate that the number of circulating endothelial stem cells is not related to the presence and/or severity of the pulmonary emphysema or the presence or absence of COPD
What, when and by whom? Adolescents’ and parents’ preferences concerning narcolepsy information
No full textObjective: To investigate adolescents’ and parents’ preferences concerning information on narcolepsy. Methods: During a one-year cross-sectional study, adolescents (12–20 years old) with narcolepsy and parents attending the Narcolepsy Center of Bologna (Italy) were invited to fill in a questionnaire including 28 pieces of information regarding narcolepsy, 14 concerning medical issues (i.e., diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, management) and 14 concerning psychosocial issues (i.e., impact on everyday life, relationships, possible support). Participants were asked to indicate: the importance of each item on a 5-point Likert scale; when each piece of information should be provided (diagnostic suspicion, confirmed diagnosis, follow-up visits, upon patient's request); and who should provide it (doctor, nurse, psychologist, parents and/or others). Results: Sixty-two adolescents (37% female, mean age 16.4 years) and 96 parents (58% female, mean age 48.2 years) agreed to participate (100% response rate). Parents rated all items as important (score≥4), while, according to adolescents, 11/14 medical and psychosocial issues were important. The moment of diagnosis was considered the right time to give almost all medical information. Regarding psychosocial issues, mothers mainly indicated the time of diagnosis, while fathers also indicated follow-up visits, and some children opted for follow-up visits or information upon request. The doctor was the preferred provider but when information concerned psychosocial issues, adolescents also indicated the parents, and parents also indicated the psychologist. Conclusions: This study suggests that information on narcolepsy should be comprehensive and tailored, and that parents and psychologists may support the doctor in providing information when narcolepsy is diagnosed during adolescence
Best Practices on Radiology Department Workflow: Tips from the Impact of the COVID-19 Lockdown on an Italian University Hospital
No full textPurpose: The workload of the radiology department (RD) of a university hospital in northern Italy dramatically changed during the COVID-19 outbreak. The restrictive measures of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown influenced the use of radiological services and particularly in the emergency department (ED). Methods: Data on diagnostic services from March 2020 to May 2020 were retrospectively collected and analysed in aggregate form and compared with those of the same timeframe in the previous year. Data were sorted by patient type in the following categories: inpatients, outpatients, and ED patients; the latter divided in “traumatic” and “not traumatic” cases. Results: Compared to 2019, 6449 fewer patients (−32.6%) were assisted in the RD. This decrease was more pronounced for the emergency radiology unit (ERU) (−41%) compared to the general radiology unit (−25.7%). The proportion of investigations performed for trauma appeared to decrease significantly from 14.8% to 12.5% during the COVID-19 emergency (p < 0.001). Similarly, the proportion of assisted traumatic patients decreased from 16.6% to 12.5% (p < 0.001). The number of emergency patients assisted by the RD was significantly reduced from 45% during routine activity to 39.4% in the COVID-19 outbreak (p < 0.001). Conclusion: The COVID-19 outbreak had a tremendous impact on all radiology activities. We documented a drastic reduction in total imaging volume compared to 2019 because of both the pandemic and the lockdown. In this context, investigations performed for trauma showed a substantial decrease
Skin sarcoidosis on both vitiligo and tattoos in the same patient: Report of an exceptional case and pathogenetic hypotheses of intriguing associations
No full textOur presentation offers the opportunity to consider the possible regional immunological and tissue modifications that promote skin hyper‐reactivity. The peculiarity of our case consists in the coexistence of skin sarcoidosis within both a vitiligo patch and tattoos, which is a condition never previously described, to our knowledge
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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