1,721,117 research outputs found
Weekend Effect for Pulmonary Embolism and Other Acute Cardiovascular Diseases
No full textA paper by Nanchal et al presented interesting data about the existence of a “weekend effect” for pulmonary embolism. Patients admitted to the hospital on weekend, in fact, had a 19% increased risk of death. These results represent further confirmation to previous reports in Canada (cited by the authors) and in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy from our group, that both found a 17% increased risk of death too. We have extensively explored the possible presence of a different mortality rate between weedays and weekends, and confirmed an even more increased risk of death also for other acute cardiovascular diseases, i.e. acute heart failure (OR 1.33), and aortic aneurysm rupture or dissection (OR 1.31). Medical and nursing understaffing, shortage of diagnostic or procedural services, presence of inesperienced residents have been called as possible causes. However, the data collected in Italy (and in the Emilia-Romagna region in particular) do not support such interpretation, being also the global health system and the hospital service organization in Italy not comparable at all with that of countries like USA or UK. Temporal aspects of onset of acute cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases might play a role as well, and circadian and seasonal preferred times of onset of certain diseases are known. It is possible that acute diseases do not present with equal severity along time, i.e., day of the week or hour of day. A single center study on acute coronary syndromes (ACS), addressed to explore this possibility, showed that, although there were fewer ACS admissions than expected on nights and weekends, the proportion of patients with ACS presenting with ST-elevation myocardial infarctions was 64% higher on weekends. A higher severity might be linked with higher risk of mortality, and several parameters of severity collected by Nanchal et al (1), e.g., need for mechanical ventilation, thrombolytic therapy use, or use of vasopressors, are in agreement with this line. Further studies are needed to explore this intriguing relationship between time of presentation and clinical outcome of acute cardiovascular diseases
Recurrent venous thromboembolism in men and women.
No full textThis letter to the Editor discusses a paper dealing with recurrence of venous thromboembolism
Siliconoma: An unusual entity for the internist [2]
No full textA case report of an unusual clinical entity for the internist: a siliconoma
Seasonal pattern in acute aortic diseases: US results confirm Italian findings.
No full textKumar and coll. (Int J Cardiol 2015), in a large sample of hospitalizations in the United States, found that most cases (26.5%) occurred in winter, with the highest rate of hospitalizations in January and lowest in July. Some years ago, a study from our group investigated the seasonal pattern of acute aortic disease in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. The final sample, years 2000- 2006, was of 4,615 cases (mean age 66.7 ± 13.6 years, 77% males): the distribution by season showed peaks in Autumn and Winter (27%). As for analysis across subgroups, such seasonal pattern was conformed for total sample (p75 years (p=0.049), hypertensive (p=0.022) and normotensive subjects (p<0.0001), total dissections (p<0.0001), dissections of thoracic (p<0.0001), abdominal (p=0.013), and thoraco-abdominal (p=0.001) aorta. Thus, it is important to observe that the results from the United States, performed on a large series of more than 89,000 cases, provide further strong confirmation to the data collected in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna
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
Seasonal variation in the onset of acute pancreatitis
No full textAIM: A circannual variation in the onset of several acute diseases, mostly dealing with cardiovascular system, has been reported. The present study was to verify the possible existence of a seasonal variability in the onset of acute pancreatitis. METHODS: All patients consecutively admitted to the Hospital of Ferrara, Italy, between January 1998 to December 2002, whose discharge diagnosis was acute pancreatitis, were considered. According to the time of admission, cases were categorized into twelve 1-mo intervals and in four periods by season. chi (2) test for goodness of fit and partial Fourier series were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: During the study period, 549 cases of acute pancreatitis were observed. A significant peak of higher incidence was found in March-May, both for total population, males and subgroups with and without cholelithiasis or alcoholism. Fourier analysis showed the existence of a circannual rhythmic pattern with its main peak in March (95% C.L.: February-April, P = 0.005), and a secondary one in September. Death occurred more frequently in December-February, compared to the other periods (P = 0.029), and chronobiologic analysis yielded a seasonal peak in November-December (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: This study shows the existence of a circannual variation in the onset of acute pancreatitis, with a significantly higher frequency of events in the spring, especially for patients with cholelithiasis or alcoholism. Moreover, events occurring during the colder months seem to be characterized by a higher mortality rate
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