1,720,978 research outputs found
Epidemiology of hepatitis c virus infection in Italy: The slowly unravelling mystery.
No full textIn spite of the large diffusion of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and its high association with liver disease, the epidemiology of HCV in Italy is still unclear. This review collects all the data available on the prevalence and incidence of HCV infection in Italy and compares them with those reported in other countries
Accuracy of body mass index in detecting an elevated alanine aminotransferase level in adolescents.
No full textAIM:
We evaluated the accuracy of body mass index (BMI) in detecting an elevated alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level in adolescents, taking into account the effects of gender, age, ethanol intake, hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections, and drug consumption.
SUBJECTS:
A representative sample of 454 adolescents (11-17 years) from two cities in northern Italy was studied (the Dionysos Study).
METHODS:
z-BMI was calculated as the z-score of BMI using national growth charts. Logistic regression was used to quantify the contribution of the variables of interest to an elevated ALT (> 30 UL(-1)). Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated, and areas under receiver-operator characteristic curves (AUC) were used to evaluate accuracy.
RESULTS:
An elevated ALT was detected in 21 adolescents (4.6%). Among the studied variables, only male gender (OR=6.7, 95% CI 2.0-23.2) and z-BMI (OR=2.1, 95% CI 1.4-3.2) were significant predictors of elevated ALT. The accuracy of the prediction was 0.69 (95% CI 0.59-0.79) for gender and 0.71 (95% CI 0.59-0.81) for z-BMI. By combining gender and z-BMI, the accuracy rose to 0.80 (95% CI 0.71-0.89).
CONCLUSION:
BMI is a good predictor of elevated ALT in Italian adolescents and gender adds to the accuracy of the prediction
MBL2 Genetic Variants in HCV Infection Susceptibility, Spontaneous Viral Clearance and Pegylated Interferon Plus Ribavirin Treatment Response
No full textHepatitis C is disease that damages the liver, and it is caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV). The pathology became chronic in about 80% of the cases due to
virus persistence in the host organism. The standard of care consists of pegylated interferon plus ribavirin; however, the treatment response is very variable and
different host/viral factors may concur in the disease outcome. The mannosebinding protein C (MBL) is a component of the innate immune system, able to
recognize HCV and consecutively activating the immune response. MBL is encoded by MBL2 gene, and polymorphisms, two in the promoter region (H/L
and X/Y) and three in exon 1 (at codon 52, 54 and 57), have been described as functionally influencing protein expression. In this work, 203 Italian HCV
patients and 61 healthy controls were enrolled and genotyped for the five MBL2 polymorphisms mentioned above to investigate their role in HCV infection
susceptibility, spontaneous viral clearance and treatment response. MBL2 polymorphisms were not associated with HCV infection susceptibility and with
spontaneous viral clearance, while MBL2 O allele, O/O genotype, HYO haplotype and DP combined genotype (all correlated with low or deficient MBL
expression) were associated with sustained virological response. Moreover, a meta-analysis to assess the role of MBL2 polymorphisms in HCV infection
susceptibility was also performed: YA haplotype could be associated with protection towards HCV infection
Analysis of p53 and ras gene mutations in hepatocellular carcinoma from a Western country
No full textObjective: To evaluate the frequency of p53 tumour suppressor gene and H- and K-ras oncogene mutations in both neoplastic and distant cirrhotic non-neoplastic tissue in Italian patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Patients: Ten men and four women (mean age 62 +/-7 years) with HCC associated with cirrhosis, who underwent resection. More than half the patients had a lesion over 3 cm in diameter and in 12 cases carcinoma was well differentiated.
Methods: Exons 4 to 9 of p53 and codons 12, 13 and 61 of the H- and K-ras genes were analyzed by the polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformation polymorphism method in both neoplastic and non-adjacent cirrhotic tissue and in cell lines harbouring known mutations as positive controls.
Results: No aberrant migrating fragments were observed in tumoral and cirrhotic non-neoplastic tissue.
Conclusion: Our findings suggest that p53 mutation is a rare occurrence in HCC, at least in countries with a low incidence of this cancer. They also confirm that H- and K-ras mutations are infrequent in HCC and play a minimal role in hepatocarcinogenesis
Behind the Decrease of Liver Stiffness After Successful Hepatitis C Virus Eradication with Direct-Acting Antiviral Agents
Full text linkN/
The importance of medical specialists and services coordination to effectively treat hepatitis C infection in patients who inject drugs: the Trieste model of care
No full text
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
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