1,720,974 research outputs found
Painful Diabetic Polyneuropathy: Approach to Diagnosis and Management
No full textOBJECTIVES:: To provide a current overview of the diagnostic work-up and management of painful diabetic polyneuropathy (PDPN). METHODS:: A review covering the literature from 2004 to 2011, which describes the tools designed to diagnose neuropathic pain and assess its severity, including self-administered questionnaires, validated laboratory tests and simple handheld screening devices, and the evidence-based therapeutic approaches to PDPN. RESULTS:: The clinical aspects, pathogenesis, and comorbidities of PDPN, as well as its impact on health related quality of life (HR-QoL), are the main drivers for the management of patients with suspected PDPN. PDPN treatment consists first of all in improving glycemic control and lifestyle intervention. A number of symptomatic pharmacological agents are available for pain control: tricyclic antidepressants and selective serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (venlafaxine and duloxetine), α2-delta ligands (gabapentin and pregabalin), opioid analgesics (tramadol and oxycodone), and agents for topical use, such as lidocaine patch and capsaicin cream. With the exception of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, physical treatment is not supported by adequate evidence. DISCUSSION:: As efficacy and tolerability of current therapy for PDPN are not ideal, the need for a better approach in management further exists. Novel compounds should be developed for the treatment of PDPN
Evaluation of an alternative dosing regimen with tadalafil, three times per week, for men with erectile dysfunction: SURE study in Italy
No full textTo examine the preference for two dosing regimens of 20 mg of tadalafil, on demand or three times per week, in men affected with erectile dysfunction (ED) in Italy
Patterns of treatment with PDE5 inhibitors in the clinical practice in Italy: longitudinal data from the Erectile Dysfunction Observational Study.
No full textThe Erectile Dysfunction Observational Study (EDOS) is a 6-months observational prospective multicentric study enrolling men with erectile dysfunction (ED) who asked, to be started on a treatment or to change a previous treatment. Aims of the study were to analyse the pattern of treatment and compare the efficacy of treatments used. Patients were enrolled during a normal hospital visit and were prescribed a treatment for ED. They were asked at baseline and after 3 and 6 months, to answer a set of questions from the International Index of Erectile Function, Erectile Dysfunction Inventory of Treatment Satisfaction (EDITS) and Short Form of the Psychological and Interpersonal Relationships Scale questionnaires (SF-PAIRS). Clinicians were free to prescribe any therapy for ED available in the market, and to change therapy at any time during the study. Out of 1 338 patients, available for analysis at 6 months, 624 (47%) changed their treatment during the study and 714 (53%) continued with the drug prescribed at baseline. Patients assuming tadalafil had a significantly higher probability of maintaining the same treatment compared to sildenafil or vardenafil. There was no clinically significant difference in terms of efficacy, patient satisfaction, self-confidence and spontaneity between the different inhibitors of PDE5. The 'time concerns' domain score of SF-PAIRS, was statistically better in patients assuming tadalafil. In conclusion sildenafil, vardenafil and tadalafil show similar efficacy in the clinical practice. However, patients receiving tadalafil display a lower risk to discontinue or change the treatment
An identikit of patients seeking treatment for erectile dysfunction in Italy: Results from the EDOS italian database
No full textObjectives: Erectile Dysfunction Observational Study (EDOS) is a 6 months observational, prospective, multicentre trial, which enrolled more than 8,000 patients referring to physicians to seek treatment for ED or to modify their current therapy; it was conducted in 9 European countries. Objective of this trial was to outline general characteristics of these populations and related treatment patterns, to assess their efficacy, motivation for treatment extension or discontinuation and patients' overall satisfaction in clinical practice. Baseline characteristics of Italian enrolled population provide the Italian patient profile seeking ED treatment. Materials and Methods: The Italian centres involved in this study enrolled, from April 2003 to April 2004, 1,419 men, aged over 18. All of them had already requested to their general practitioner or specialist to start a treatment for ED or to modify a previously initiated therapy. Baseline assessment together with all demographic data, included collecting information about: education, socioeconomic position, clinical history, co-morbidities, ED current therapies, concomitant pharmacological therapies (antidepressants, antihypertensive and other cardiovascular drugs, hypolipidemic drugs, antipsychotics, and anti-cancer agents). All patients filled in IIEF-EF e SF-PAIRS questionnaires, and responded to single item question 1 (SIQ1: During last 6 months, did not your erection last long enough for you to start and have a successful sexual intercourse?). Results: Of the 1,419 men enrolled, 1,357 were eligible for the study. Mean age was 55 years and BMI=26.8 kg/m 2. 83% of patients' education was above primary school; 52% had a full time job, while 37% was retired. 88.5% reported a steady relationship, and 71.5% reported that this relationship had been longer than 10 years. 70.4% of patients were smokers or ex-smokers, while potus history was infrequent. ED was mild or moderate in 61.6% cases and had a psychogenic, organic or mixed origin respectively in 24%, 33% and 43%; 59% of patients had a story of ED more than one year. 43% was assuming other drugs for concurrent diseases, mainly antihypertensive drugs (71%). Conclusions: Italian outcomes from EDOS study allow us to outline the "average patient" profile, who in Italian clinical practice seeks treatment for ED
Evaluation of an alternative dosing regimen with tadalafil, three times per week, for men with erectile dysfunction: SURE study in Italy.
No full textTo examine the preference for two dosing regimens of 20 mg of tadalafil, on demand or three times per week, in men affected with erectile dysfunction (ED) in Italy
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Get PDFWe 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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