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Principio degli stati corrispondenti per il calcolo della tensione superficiale di liquidi
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Variation of proteinuria in dogs with leishmaniasis treated with meglumine antimoniate and allopurinol : a retrospective study
No full textA retrospective study was performed using 53 client owned dogs with leishmaniasis to determine whether the degree of proteinuria, evaluated by the urine protein/creatinine ratio (UP/C), changes following treatment with meglumine antimoniate and allopurinol. Medical records of dogs with leishmaniasis in clinical stage C (according to the Canine Leishmaniasis Working Group staging system) and either proteinuric or borderline proteinuric (according to the International Renal Interest Society [IRIS] staging system) were reviewed. All dogs were treated with meglumine antimoniate and allopurinol for 4-8 wk. After treatment, UP/C, total protein, and total globulin significantly decreased and albumin and the albumin/globulin ratio (A/G) increased. After treatment, 7 of the 53 dogs (13.4%) became nonproteinuric following either a proteinuric or borderline proteinuric stage. Moreover, 12 of the 53 proteinuric dogs (22.6%) changed their stage to borderline proteinuric. The antileishmaniasis treatment with meglumine antimoniate in combination with allopurinol in dogs significantly reduced the degree of proteinuria in a short period of time. The results of the current study may be useful to the veterinary practitioner in the clinical management of canine leishmaniasis (CanL) in dogs with proteinuric chronic kidney disease
Variation of proteinuria in dogs affected by lehismaniasis trated with maglumine antimoniate and allopurinol : 53 cases
No full textIntroduction. Canine leishmaniasis (CanL)-associated proteinuric nephropathy is characterized by glomerular damage primarily
attributed to glomerular deposition of circulating immune complexes.1 Results of previously published studies suggest that,
in dogs, persistent proteinuria is associated with greater frequency of renal morbidity and mortality.2 A recent study demonstrated
a potential reno-protective activity of allopurinol decreasing proteinuria and preventing progression of renal disease in
dogs with leishmaniasis and glomerulonephritis.3
Objective. The aim of the study was to investigate whether the degree of proteinuria, evaluated by urine protein-to-creatinine ratio
(UP:C), in leishmaniotic dogs classified in clinical stage C according to the staging of Canine Leishmaniasis Working Group,4 changes
during anti-protozoan treatment with meglumine antimoniate (MA) and allopurinol (A). Furthermore, we evaluated the variations and
correlations between serum concentration of albumin, globulin, total protein and A/G before and after treatment.
Material & Methods. Medical records (2006-2010) of the Clinica Veterinaria Pirani (Italy), Veterinary Teaching Hospital of the
Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain) and Centro Veterinario Imperiese (Italy) were reviewed to identify proteinuric leishmaniotic
dogs, irrespective of their azotemic status, treated with the combination MA + A for a period ranging between 4 to 8
weeks. Dogs recruited for this study fulfilled the following inclusion criteria: a)diagnosis of leishmaniasis established by clinicopathological
abnormalities; b)positive serology for L. infantum and detection of Leishmania amastigotes in lymph node or
bone marrow aspiration smears or detection of parasite DNA using PCR; c)negative serology for E. canis and Dirofilaria immitis;
d)complete urinalysis, with inactive sediment, and determination of the UP:C just before and after the anti-Leishmania
treatment; e)treatment with MA (75-100 mg/kg SC q24h) in combination with A (20 mg/kg PO q24h) for 4 to 8 weeks. Dogs
should not have been treated with ACE-inhibitors and/or angiotensin receptor blocker in the 2 months prior to and throughout
the anti-Leishmania treatment period. Dogs with clinical signs and clinicopathological findings consistent with neoplastic, endocrine
and genetic (inherited nephropathies known or suspected) diseases correlated with proteinuria, were excluded.
Results. Before treatment, a significant negative correlation was found between UP:C and both serum albumin concentration
(P=0.029, r=-041) and A/G ratio (P=0.006, r=-0.39) and a significant positive correlation was found between UP:C and total
globulin (P=0.027, r=0.31). No correlations between UP:C and total protein were found (P=0.062, r=0.27). UP:C, total protein
and globulin significantly decreased after treatment, compared with pre-treatment values. Conversely, albumin and the A/G
ratio recorded after treatment were significantly higher than those recorded just before treatment. For all parameters, pre-and
post-treatment values were always significantly correlated to each other (P<0.001 for all). After treatment: 7 proteinuric or borderline
proteinuric dogs (13.4%) became non-proteinuric, 12 proteinuric dogs (22.6%) became borderline proteinuric. 12 dogs
(22.6%) modified their IRIS stage based on values of serum creatinine and UP:C.
Conclusions. The laboratory findings detected before treatment (hyperproteinemia, hypoalbuminemia, hyperglobulinemia, decreased
A/G ratio, proteinuria) are consistent with those previously reported by other authors on CanL.5 The hyperproteinemia
caused by hyperglobulinemia observed in this study, corroborates the findings of other Authors who reported that in some leishmaniotic
dogs there is an increase in total protein levels due to a greater production of antibodies. Similar to that reported in a
recent study,2 the anti-Leishmania treatment reduces the magnitude of proteinuria; nevertheless, in contrast to the aforementioned
study, which shows the reduction of proteinuria after 6 months of administration of A, our results show a significant reduction
of UP:C after 4-8 weeks of treatment. This result may be related to the mechanism of action of 2 drugs used: the combined
use of MA and A could lead to a more rapid reduction of parasitic load, and consequently of the circulating immune complexes
that affect the kidneys. In conclusion, is plausible to suggest that is useful, to stage the proteinuric leishmaniotic dog according
with the IRIS staging system,6 at the end of the anti-Leishmania treatment in order to correctly identify the dogs that
need anti-proteinuric therapy and optimize the conditions for monitoring the therapeutic efficacy
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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