1,720,962 research outputs found
Metformin plus proton pump inhibitors therapy: The cobalamin deficiency challenge
No full textOBJECTIVE: It is known in literature that metformin and proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are associated to cobalamin levels reduction independently but still very little is known about the combination of the two drugs in cobalamin levels decrease. Currently there are no published data concerning the management of patients with cobalamin deficiency related to the concomitant use of the aforementioned drugs. CASE REPORT: We present the case of a 65 year-old white man with an history of renal cell carcinoma, melanoma and hepatic nodular sclerosis Hodgkin's lymphoma, who was under treatment with metformin because of diabetes and with pantoprazole because of Barrett's esophagus. He came to our attention because of a progressive reduction of cobalamin levels without related anemia. We decided to continue metformin and pantoprazole therapy and we treated the patient with intramuscular injection of cobalamin to avoid the vitamin deficiency consequences. DISCUSSION: Up to now no published data are available concerning the management of patients with cobalamin deficiency related to the concomitant use of metformin and PPIs. Our case report faces this clinical problem in terms of therapeutic management
Glioblastoma multiforme and hepatitis B: do the right thing(s)
No full textHepatitis B virus (HBV) reactivation is a well-known complication related to immunosuppression. Clinical manifestations of HBV relapse range from self-limiting anicteric hepatitis to acute hepatic failure. Temozolomide (TMZ) is an alkylating agent used for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most common and deadliest of malignant primary brain tumors
Glioblastoma multiforme and hepatitis B: Do the right thing (s)
No full textOBJECTIVE: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) reactivation is a well-known complication related to immunosuppression. Clinical manifestations of HBV relapse range from self-limiting anicteric hepatitis to acute hepatic failure. Temozolomide (TMZ) is an alkylating agent used for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most common and deadliest of malignant primary brain tumors. CASE REPORT:We report the case of a 52-year old man with a history of serological positivity for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) who was diagnosed with GBM. Since the tumor was multifocal and thus inoperable, the patient received radiotherapy with concomitant TMZ and corticosteroids, without a prophylactic therapy for HBV infection. Acute hepatitis developed five months later the beginning of anticancer therapy. We started antiviral entecavir, which led to a decrease of HBV-DNA titer to 20 IU/ml, allowing the prosecution of the TMZ therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Up to now only four other cases of HBV relapse during TMZ therapy have been reported in literature. These cases underline the need of HBV screening and antiviral prophylaxis before starting TMZ administration
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
Clinical predictors of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth by duodenal aspirate culture
No full textBACKGROUND:
There has been increasing interest in small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) after reports of a link with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), yet our understanding of this entity is limited.
AIM:
Our aim was to estimate the yield of patients undergoing duodenal aspirate culture, and to identify symptoms and features that predict SIBO.
METHODS:
A medical chart review of patients who had undergone duodenal aspirate culture at an academic medical centre in 2003 was performed to record clinical characteristics and culture results. The associations between aspirate results and symptoms, medical diagnoses and medication use were assessed using logistic regression.
RESULTS:
A total of 675 patients had available aspirate results. Mean age of the sample was 53 (s.d. 17) and 443 (66%) were female patients. Overall, 8% of aspirates were positive for SIBO; 2% of IBS patients had SIBO. Older age, steatorrhoea and narcotic use were associated with SIBO (P < 0.05). PPI use was not associated with SIBO, but was associated with bacterial growth not meeting criteria for SIBO (P < 0.05). Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), small bowel diverticula and pancreatitis were positively associated with an abnormal duodenal aspirate (P < 0.05), but other conditions including IBS were not associated with SIBO.
CONCLUSION:
Older age, steatorrhoea, narcotic use, IBD, small bowel diverticula and pancreatitis were associated with small intestinal bacterial overgrowth based on abnormal duodenal aspirate culture results. However, no clear associations of true small intestinal bacterial overgrowth with IBS or PPI use were detected, in contrast to recent speculation
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