1,721,134 research outputs found
Helicobacter pylori genotypes influence serum pepsinogen C levels.
No full textBACKGROUND:
Infection from Helicobacter pylori significantly influences pepsinogen A (PGA) and C (PGC) levels in serum. Increased PGA and PGC serum levels are observed in H. pylori positive patients, while a significant decrease is observed after eradication. Little is known about the relative role of H. pylori cytotoxic strains in this phenomenon. The aim of our study was to assess the influence of cagA genotype on circulating levels of PGA and PGC.
MATERIALS AND METHODS:
We studied 81 consecutive H. pylori positive patients, 64 H. pylori negative patients and 18 healthy controls. H. pylori was evaluated histologically in two antral and two body biopsies (Giemsa and/or Warthin Starry staining). Extracted DNA was then submitted for PCR amplification of both the urease A and cagA genes. A serum obtained from each patient before endoscopy was used for specific radioimmunoassay measurement of PGA and PGC.
RESULTS:
The urease A gene was found in all H. pylori positive patients, the cagA gene was detected in 55 H. pylori positive patients and in none of the H. pylori negative patients. PGA and PGC levels were significantly higher in H. pylori positive than in H. pylori negative patients. A significant association was found between cagA and raised serum PGC levels in patients with antral gastritis but not in patients with peptic ulcer. Serum PGA levels were not affected by cagA.
CONCLUSIONS:
Our results indicate that cagA positivity may influence the circulating PGC levels, probably because it causes a higher grade of mucosal inflammation
Insights in the laboratory diagnosis of celiac disease
No full textAbstract
The present report focuses on the diagnosis of celiac disease and its pathogenesis, which depends on a genetic predisposition (HLA DQ2 or DQ8 haplotypes), gluten ingestion and T cell activation, type II transglutaminase (TG2), the autoantigen recognized by the antiendomysial antibody playing a key role. IgA class antibody anti-environmental (gliadin) and endogenous (TG2) antigens are present in the sera of patients with celiac disease. The anti-TG2 antibody has the best available diagnostic accuracy, especially when measured employing second generation ELISA tests, which use the human TG2 antigen, or immunochemiluminescent assay, which is highly sensitive. A diagnosis of celiac disease must always be confirmed by the histological evaluation of multiple duodenal mucosa specimens, and serology is recommended for follow-up controls
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
Combined use of urinary UGP and serum CA 125 in the diagnosis of gynecological cancers.
No full textUGP, the beta-core fragment of human chorionic gonadotropin has been proposed as a tumor marker for gynecological malignancies. This fragment may be detected in a single morning-specimen of urine using an enzyme immunoassay. In this study, the diagnostic usefulness of urine UGP and serum CA 125 measurement for gynecological neoplasias (149 cases) was evaluated using a control group of patients with benign gynecological diseases (69 cases) and healthy females (99 cases). Considering the neoplastic patients in comparison to patients with benign diseases, the best diagnostic efficiency (78%) was found to correspond to a cut-off level of 120 pmol/mol creatinine the sensitivity being 73% and the specificity 90%. With this cut-off, an efficiency of 82% for healthy controls was obtained. Since the menopausal condition increases UGP levels, and though no significant difference for UGP was found between healthy subjects and patients with benign diseases, we decided to consider the reference populations as a single group. Thus, we evaluated the UGP performance on the basis of menopausal status. When a specificity of 95% was fixed, the cut-off values were 120 and 180 pmol/mol creatinine for pre- and postmenopausal women respectively, the sensitivity being 73% and 64%. Finally the combined evaluation of UGP and CA 125 improved their individual clinical efficiency for the diagnosis of ovarian serous cystadenocarcinomas, assuring a sensitivity of 86% and a specificity of 89%
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
Helicobacter pylori non-cytotoxic genotipe enhances mucosal gastrin and MAST cell triptase
No full text[Utility of denaturing high performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC) for the diagnosis of mevalonate kinase deficiency in periodic disease]
No full textOBJECTIVES: We developed a genetic investigation using denaturing high performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC), in order to identify polymorphisms of the gene MVK in patients with autoinflammatory syndrome suspicion.
METHODS: We evaluated 19 patients affected by recurrent fevers and other clinical manifestations usually found in autoinflammatory syndromes and not correlated with infections or autoimmune disease and 10 healthy controls. IgD level was measured in all patients. Molecular testing was performed in DNA extracted from PBMC and MVK gene was analysed either with DHPLC or with automatic sequencer. Primers for PCR amplifications, amplicon lengths and PCR conditions were designed in our laboratory.
RESULTS: IgD level was normal in 14 patients. Healthy controls did not show any alteration of the DHPLC-profiles and of the DNA sequences. Twelve patients had at least one altered DHPLC-profile and these data have been confirmed by sequencing. In particular we detected the polymorphisms c.78+61A>G, S52N, S135S, D170D, c.632-18A>G, c.885+24G>A already described in the database INFEVERS. With DHPLC we got the results in shorter time (10 hours/patient) and with lower cost (40 euro/patient) in comparison to direct sequencing (25 hours and 150 euro/patient).
CONCLUSIONS: High IgD levels do not represent an essential marker for diagnosis of MKD, as already reported in literature. DHPLC is a rapid low cost technique in order to screen mutations in patients with MKD suspicion. Twelve patients carried at the same time D170D and c.632-18A>G: such event suggests that these SNPs could be in linkage disequilibrium and that such polymorphisms could predispose to MKD
- …
