1,720,991 research outputs found
Post-renal transplant pregnancy: a project to plan carefully
No full textKidney transplant is the best treatment for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) as it improves the quality of life and reduces the mortality risk for most patients compared with maintenance dialysis. Additionally, evidence from the literature suggests that renal function, endocrine status and libido rapidly improve after kidney transplant, and one in 50 women of childbearing age become pregnant. Therefore, it seems clear that pregnancy after transplant is a great challenge for physicians involved in this field. The available information on pregnancy outcomes is largely derived from case reports and single-center series, which are unlikely to be representative. Moreover, poor results are less likely to be reported. Many of the reports on long-term outcome show the results of past medical, obstetric, and neonatal care, which may be very different from current practice. Attempts are being made to provide more up-to-date, representative data through national transplantation pregnancy registries. A great number of researchers worldwide have analyzed the biological and endocrinological machinery associated with this event. Additionally, several strategies have been introduced to avoid unplanned pregnancies and to minimize maternal and fetal complications in renal transplant recipients. It seems evident that the return to fertility soon after transplant is often associated with unplanned pregnancy, which can expose both mother and fetus to considerable risks. This underpins the necessity to recommend contraceptive counseling and start clinical follow-up in order to early identify possible pregnancy-related risk factors. In general, pregnancy should not be recommended within the first year after kidney transplant because the risk of acute rejection is greatest and immunosuppressive therapy the most aggressive. It should be planned when organ function and immunosuppressive therapy are stabilized and there is no sign of rejection, hypertension, or chronic infection. Additionally, renal transplant patients and their physicians together must try to identify the best timing, carry out pre-pregnancy screening, and delineate clinical follow-up and future pharmacological programs to minimize or avoid serious maternal and fetal complications. Finally, additional studies are needed to better understand the physiology associated with this condition, improve the pharmacological approach, and analyze the complex ethical and social implications of this important aspect of renal transplantation
Post-renal transplant pregnancy: a project to plan carefully
No full textKidney transplant is the best treatment for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) as it improves the quality of life and reduces the mortality risk for most patients compared with maintenance dialysis. Additionally, evidence from the literature suggests that renal function, endocrine status and libido rapidly improve after kidney transplant, and one in 50 women of childbearing age become pregnant. Therefore, it seems clear that pregnancy after transplant is a great challenge for physicians involved in this field. The available information on pregnancy outcomes is largely derived from case reports and single-center series, which are unlikely to be representative. Moreover, poor results are less likely to be reported. Many of the reports on long-term outcome show the results of past medical, obstetric, and neonatal care, which may be very different from current practice. Attempts are being made to provide more up-to-date, representative data through national transplantation pregnancy registries. A great number of researchers worldwide have analyzed the biological and endocrinological machinery associated with this event. Additionally, several strategies have been introduced to avoid unplanned pregnancies and to minimize maternal and fetal complications in renal transplant recipients. It seems evident that the return to fertility soon after transplant is often associated with unplanned pregnancy, which can expose both mother and fetus to considerable risks. This underpins the necessity to recommend contraceptive counseling and start clinical follow-up in order to early identify possible pregnancy-related risk factors. In general, pregnancy should not be recommended within the first year after kidney transplant because the risk of acute rejection is greatest and immunosuppressive therapy the most aggressive. It should be planned when organ function and immunosuppressive therapy are stabilized and there is no sign of rejection, hypertension, or chronic infection. Additionally, renal transplant patients and their physicians together must try to identify the best timing, carry out pre-pregnancy screening, and delineate clinical follow-up and future pharmacological programs to minimize or avoid serious maternal and fetal complications. Finally, additional studies are needed to better understand the physiology associated with this condition, improve the pharmacological approach, and analyze the complex ethical and social implications of this important aspect of renal transplantation
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
IDENTIFICATION OF MOLECULAR BIOMARKERS FOR EARLY DIAGNOSIS OF DELAYED GRAFT FUNCTION IN RENAL TRANSPLANT RECIPIENTS
No full textIntroduction and Aims: Delayed graft function (DGF) is the most common complication affecting kidney allografts in the immediate post-transplant period. Defined as the necessity for dialysis in the first week after surgery, DGF occurs in 20% to 50% of patients receiving a first cadaver graft. DGF is usually the result of ischemic damage to the graft before or during harvesting, and it is further aggravated by the reperfusion syndrome, a multifactorial event in which polymorphonuclear (PMN) cells play a major role. This condition is often associated with an increased
risk of premature graft failure and residual graft dysfunction. Factors related to the donor and prerenal, renal, or postrenal transplant factors related to the recipient can contribute to this condition. However, at the state of art, the systemic biological
machinery associated to this condition is still not completely known.
Methods: Therefore, aims of our study have been to identify, by combining an innovative high-throughput technology (HG-U133A, microarray, Affymetrix) with classical bio-molecular approaches, specific DGF transcriptomic fingerprints (DGF biomarkers). To this purpose, we compared the genomic profile (around 15,000 genes) of 7 patients with DGF with that of 7 patients with early graft function (EGF). This comparison was performed using PMN isolated by whole blood at the time of transplantation (T0) and after one day (T1) post-transplantation. Subsequently, we
applied several statistical algorithms and functional analysis by Gene-Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA), to identify biological processes able to discriminate DGF versus EGF at both T0 and T1.
Results: Bioinformatics showed that two pathways: a) NLS BEARING SUBSTRATE IMPORT INTO NUCLEUS (19 annotated genes) and b) PROTEIN IMPORT INTO THE NUCLEUS (32 annotated genes) were significantly up-regulated, at both T0
and T1, in DGF compared to EGF (p<0.009/FDR<30 and p<0.004/FDR<35, respectively). RT-PCR performed on an independent cohort of patients (n:25 with DGF and n:25 with EGF) confirmed microarray results. Both the identified pathways
are primary involved in the transport of substrates from cytoplasm to nucleus.
Conclusions: Our approach may help researchers to improve the overall biological knowledge of DGF; moreover, it may introduce new potential biomarkers useful to early identify risk patients for DGF and to select new research topics and potential targets for future therapeutic approaches
Cardiovascular risk factors in patients with chronic renal failure maintained on hemodialysis or continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis
No full textThe impact of pruritus on the quality of life of patients undergoing dialysis: a single centre cohort study.
No full textSelenium status and plasma glutathione peroxidase in patients with IgA nephropathy.
No full textThe abnormal proliferation of mesangial cells with IgA deposition in the glomeruli characterizes primitive mesangial glomerulonephritis (IgA nephropathy, IgAN); this disease reduces the normal renal parenchyma while renal function becomes progressively impaired. The possible role of selenium has never been considered in evaluating factors involved in the pathogenesis of IgAN. In this work we compared the Se status of 14 IgAN patients (8 with normal renal function, IgAN NRF; 6 with impaired renal function, IgAN IRF) to that of 14 normal individuals (CG NRF) before and after an oral supplementation with selenite (0.13 mol Se/kg b.w./day for 60 days). The following indices of Se status were measured: Se in plasma and urine samples by PIXE; glutathione peroxidase activity in the cytosol of platelets (PLTs-GSH-Px) and of erythrocytes (RBCs-GSH-Px). Both concentrations and activities of plasma glutathione peroxidase (pl-GPx), a selenoenzyme mainly synthesized in and secreted by the kidney, were measured in plasma samples and results compared among groups. IgAN patients showed lower pl-Se and lower activities of selenoenzymes than normal controls before Se supplementation (p < 0.001). These findings suggest that an impaired Se status coexisted with the proliferation of mesangial cells in patients. Selenite induced PLTs-GSH-Px activity in all individuals (p < 0.001), but no variation was observed in RBCs-GSH-Px activity or in the concentration of pl-GPx in the plasma. On the other hand, selenium induced pl-GPx activity in CG NRF (p < 0.001) and in IgAN NRF (p < 0.01), but poorly stimulated pl-GPx activity in IgAN IRF (p = n.s.). However, only 17% and 25% of the pl-GPx activity of normal controls was measured in the plasma of IgAN IRF and IgAN NRF patients, respectively (p < 0.001). In conclusion, selenite only partially restored a normal Se status in patients whose low pl-GPx activity probably reflects an impaired synthesis of this protein as a consequence of reduced normal functioning of the parenchyma in kidneys affected by IgA nephropathy
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