1,720,962 research outputs found
NT-proBNP correlates with the illness scores pneumonia severity index and CURB-65 in patients with pneumonia
No full textPneumonia severity index (PSI) and CURB-65 (confusion, urea, respiratory rate, blood pressure, age ≥65) are used to estimate the severity and prognosis of patients with pneumonia. NT-proBNP is a marker of myocardial stress and of sepsis-induced myocardial depression and might be used to predict short and long-term survival in patients with pneumonia. Twenty-three patients [age 79±15 standard deviation (SD); M/F 8/15, CURB-65 2.2±0.9 SD, PSI 118±38 SD, procalcitonin 3.9±5 SD] with pneumonia hospitalized in our Internal Medicine Unit were retrospectively evaluated. NT-proBNP was measured in the first 72 h of hospitalization. CURB-65 and PSI were calculated and correlation with biomarkers investigated. NT-proBNP showed a moderate statistically significant correlation with both PSI and CURB-65 (NT-proBNP vs PSI, r=0.42, P<0.05, NT-proBNP vs CURB-65, r=0.46, P<0.05). These correlations were confirmed also when patients with a diagnosis of heart failure where excluded from the analysis, even if the correlation did not reach the statistical significance. NT-proBNP seems to well correlate with the illness scores PSI and CURB-65 and might be a reliable predictor of severity and survival in patients with pneumonia
Antibiotic use in departments of internal medicine of Lazio
Full text linkAntimicrobial therapy is inappropriate in 9 to 64% of the patients hospitalized. We evaluated the antibiotic use in Internal Medicine wards of an Italian region (Lazio) by a prospective multicenter, observational study. One thousand and nine patients were evaluated. Patients under antimicrobial treatment (PUAT) were 588 (58.2%), patients without treatment (PWT) 421 (41.8%). Infections were classified as community acquired (47.8%), hospital acquired (10.3%) or healthcare-associated (11.4%); the remaining 30.5% of infections did not receive any epidemiological classification. Samples for microbiological examination were collected in 41.6% of PUAT. The antibiotic choice was empiric in 94.8% of the cases and protected penicillins were selected in 48% of the cases. The mean duration of treatment was 9.5±6 standard deviation (SD) days. Only 6% of the patients switched from intravenous to oral therapy. Age, length of hospital stay and mortality were higher for PUAT than for PWT (mean age: 75.9±15 SD vs 74.2±15 SD years, P<0.02; length of hospital stay: 13.7±10.4 SD vs 10±8.4 SD days, P<0.01; mortality: 15.9% vs 3.1%). Antibiotic stewardship needs to be implemented all over the hospitals of Lazio region
Exercise respiratory cycle time components in patients with emphysema
Full text linkBackground: We have recently demonstrated that in patients with COPD the severity of emphysema (E) measured by high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) correlated with: ratio VTpeak/FEV1; VE/VCO2 slope and PETCO2 values at peak exercise. The aim of this study was to further investigate if exercise respiratory cycle time components correlated with % of E measured by HRCT. Method: Twelve patients (age = 65±8 yrs; FEV1 = 55±17%pred) with moderate to severe E (quantified by lung HRCT as % voxels < −910 HU) were evaluated with incremental cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET). Mean inspiratory time (TiM), mean total respiratory cycle time (TtotM), mean expiratory time during exercise (TeM) and mean expiratory time during the last third of exercise (TeM-end), has been calculated.
Results: Both TeM and TeM-end had a good linear correlation with % of E (r = 0,61; p = 0,004 and r = 0,63; p = 0,003). Moreover, by dividing the patients in two groups based on the % of E (>50% and <50%), we observed that patients with higher % of E had longer TeM (TeM: 1,72±0,26sec vs 1,34±0,27sec, p = 0,005) and TeM-end. A good linear correlation has been observed also between TeM and PETCO2 and VE/VCO2 (r = 0,64; p = 0,002 and r = 0,7; p = 0,0005). TeM did not correlated with resting lung function values or inspiratory capacity (IC).
Conclusion: The data confirm that distinct physiologic response pattern can be detected at CPET in these patients
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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