1,720,960 research outputs found
Bempedoic Acid and Statins in Lipid-Lowering Strategy: Which Came First, the Egg or the Chicken?
No full textThe goal in cardiovascular prevention is the reduction of morbidity and mortality through the promotion of healthy lifestyles in the general population. The management of modifiable risk factors with pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions, based on the individual risk is the first strategy suggested by the current guidelines. Several epidemiological studies have clearly shown the direct correlation between high levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and incidence of cardiovascular diseases. On the other hand, numerous randomized clinical studies have reported a huge benefit in terms of major cardiovascular events achievable by the reduction of LDL-C, thus supporting the notion that “the lower is better”. Among the lipid-lowering strategies, statins are the drugs of choice in cardiovascular prevention, at both primary and secondary level. To achieve the ambitious targets suggested by the current guidelines, other lipid-lowering therapies are currently available in addition to statins, such as ezetimibe the inhibitors of the PCSK9. Pharmacological research has recently led to the development of a new drug, the bempedoic acid, which further enrich the available therapies. This drug also acts on the biosynthesis of cholesterol but at upstream level than statins. From the biochemical point of view, it has the potential to be considered before the statin with consequent titration of statins to achieve the desirable LDL-C target. In the present review, the biochemical and pharmacological characteristics of bempedoic acid are discussed. An overview of the clinical data that support its use in the management of the cardiovascular patient and its allocation in the lipid-lowering scenario will be also provided
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
The overall echogenicity (GSM) of carotid intima-media complex shows a positive correlation with arterial stiffness in hypertensive patients
No full textBackground: Arterial stiffness measurement still plays a role in prediction of future cardiovascular events, thus helping for quantification of patients' cardiovascular (CV) risk level. However, significant measurement difficulties still exist, making its widespread evaluation not routinary. At present indices of arterial stiffness have not been associated with qualitative morphological characteristics of intima-media complex. The intima-media thickness (IMT) measurement is no longer recommended in the cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk assessment due to lack of a standard acquisition protocol. The intima media gray scale median (IM-GSM) is a relatively simple measurement, acquirable during a conventional carotid color-Doppler ultrasound examination. This study aims at investigating the possible relationship between arterial stiffness and echogenicity of IM-GSM of the common carotid arteries, in patients already diagnosed with arterial hypertension.Material and methods: A total of 421 hypertensive patients were retrospectively selected from our database of hypertension outpatients ambulatory. They were divided into two groups according to IM-GSM values (cutoff value: 30) and then subsequently compared.Results: In our study population, subjects with IM-GSM > 30 showed a statistically increased arterial stiffness and left ventricle mass index. A weak positive correlation was also found between IM-GSM, systolic blood pressure and duration of hypertension.Conclusion: The data presented here indicated that the variation of arterial stiffness observed in hypertensive patients is associated with structural modifications in carotid arterial wall
Uric acid in atherosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases: innocent bystander or ruthless killer?
No full textMedical attention to uric acid (UA) has been increasing in recent years, mainly because this molecule has been shown to be associated with increased cardiovascular risk, both in the general population and in the hypertensive patients. A growing body of clinical and experimental data supports this view and prompts reconsideration of the role of UA in the development of atherosclerosis and the genesis of cardiovascular disease. It is known that this substance, in certain plasma concentrations, induces increased oxidative stress, a chronic inflammatory state, and a whole series of other modifications that are potentially deleterious at the cardiovascular level leading to hypertension, atherosclerosis, atrial fibrillation (AF), and other metabolic changes such as diabetes, metabolic syndrome, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and kidney failure. Despite this epidemiologic and mechanistic evidence, the current guidelines from international cardiology scientific societies do not give precise indications in this regard, and some of them only suggest UA evaluation as part of an initial screening of the hypertensive patient. The purpose of this review is to briefly describe the main clinical and epidemiological evidence supporting the role of hyperuricemia as a possible emerging cardiovascular risk factor and to analyze the potential pathophysiological mechanisms through which elevated UA levels may exert a detrimental effect on the cardiovascular system
Transient global amnesia in a patient with painless spontaneous internal carotid artery dissection: An unusual but possible underlying cause
No full textVariations 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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