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A prospective study of fifty-three consecutive calcium heparin treated pregnancies in patients with antiphospholipid antibody-related fetal loss.
No full textClin Exp Rheumatol. 1997 Sep-Oct;15(5):499-505.
A prospective study of fifty-three consecutive calcium heparin treated pregnancies in patients with antiphospholipid antibody-related fetal loss.
Ruffatti A, Orsini A, Di Lenardo L, Nardelli GB, Patrassi GM, Truscia D, Brigato G, Grella P, Todesco S.
SourceChair and Division of Rheumatology, University of Padova, Italy.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: In this study the efficacy and safety of calcium heparin administered alone for the prevention of fetal loss related to antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) were evaluated.
METHODS: Fifty-three consecutively ascertained pregnancies were followed in 53 patients who had a history of at least 2 consecutive miscarriages during the first trimester and/or 1 fetal death during the second or third trimesters. In addition, all patients had at least 2 positive aPL tests more than 8 weeks apart before pregnancy, or a positive aPL test at the beginning of pregnancy. They were treated with calcium heparin alone, self-administered subcutaneously 3 times daily at dosages varying between 15,000 and 37,500 units. Treatment was started soon after a sonogram demonstrated a live embryo and was continued throughout pregnancy until the end of puerperium.
RESULTS: All pregnancies terminated favourably between the 25th and 40th weeks (mean +/- SD: 36.69 +/- 2.91) with planned caesarean section in 27 cases and vaginal delivery in 26. Delivery was brought forward due to maternal and/or fetal complications in 18 cases (33.96%). Calcium heparin was associated with intravenous immunoglobulin therapy in 2 patients with fetal problems unresponsive to anticoagulant treatment alone. The newborns, 30 females and 25 males, had a mean birth weight of 2,828.3 g +/- 706.5 and a mean Apgar score at 5 minutes of 9.60 +/- 0.68. No malformations were observed. Thirty of the 37 examined placentas (81.08%) showed signs of thrombotic events. Only minor side effects of calcium heparin were observed during treatment.
CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that calcium heparin administered alone using the dosages and timing described here is effective in achieving the delivery of viable infants, and that it is well tolerated
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
Viral phenotype and host-cell susceptibility to HIV-1 infection as risk factors for mother-to-child HIV-1 transmission
No full textOBJECTIVE: To investigate the role of maternal HIV-1 isolate phenotype and a child's cell susceptibility/resistance to viral infection in mother-to-child HIV-1 trasmission.
PATIENTS AND METHODS: Forty-nine women were studied at the time of delivery. Primary isolates, obtained by culturing patient peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) with PBMC from healthy donors, were characterized fro tropism and syncytium-inducing capability in monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM), peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL), and in the MT-2 and MOLT-3 T-cell lines.
RESULTS: Seven women trasnmitted HIV-1 to their children. Primary isolates were obtained from six and 28 trasmitting and non-transmitting mothers, respectively. All primary isolates from transmitting mothers and theri infants but only 50% of those from non-transmitting mothers replicated in MDM, regardless of their replication capacity in T-cell lines. PBL and MDM cells from six uninfected children were exposed to the corresponding maternal isolates. Polymerase chain reaction analysis of HIV-1 DNA in cells and p24 antigen assay in culture supernatants discosed that two PBL and five MDM cultures were resistant to viral infection; two other pBL cultures, although HIV-1-infected, were negative for p24 production. Depletion of CD8+ cells only partially respored productive infection in CD4+ cell cultures. Moreover, all six PBL but only one MDM cultures were productively infected by an isolate obtained from a transmitting mother, thus suggesting that MDM resistance to HIV-1 infection is not viral isolate-restricted.
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings strongly suggest that mother-to-child HIV-1 transmission is influenced by both monocyte-macrophage tropism of the maternal isolate and susceptibility of the child's target cells, in particular monocyte-macrophages, to HIV-1 infection
Risk factors for mother-to-child transmission of HIV-1.
No full textChildren born to women known to be infected with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) before delivery were followed prospectively from birth in nineteen European centres. This analysis, encompassing the period end-December, 1984, to beginning-August, 1991, focuses on risk factors for mother-to-child transmission of HIV-1 infection. Rate of vertical transmission, based on 721 children born to 701 mothers more than 18 months before the time of analysis, was 14.4% (95% Cl 12.0-17.1%). Transmission was associated with maternal p24-antigenaemia and a CD4 count of less than 700/microliters. In a multivariate analysis, odds ratios of transmission were: 2.25 (95% Cl 0.97-5.23) in breastfed children vs never-breastfed children; 3.80 (1.62-8.91) in children born before 34 weeks' gestation; and 0.56 (0.30-1.04) in children delivered by caesarean section. Transmission was higher with vaginal deliveries in which episiotomy, scalp electrodes, forceps, or vacuum extractors were used, but only in centres where these procedures were not routine. On the basis of these results, HIV-infected women contemplating pregnancy should be counselled according to their immunological findings and, if they have p24-antigenaemia or a low CD4 count, warned of an increased risk of viral transmission. Caesarean deliveries may have a protective effect, although it is premature to recommend routine operative delivery. The mechanism for the higher infection rate in children born before 34 weeks' gestation is unclear, but could reflect inadequate passive or active immunity at that age, combined with substantial transmission during labour or delivery. The balance of evidence suggests that mothers with established infection can transmit HIV infection through breastmilk, although the relative importance of this route remains to be define
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
Perinatal findings in children born to HIV-infected mothers. The European Collaborative Study
No full textOBJECTIVE: To explore in children born to HIV-infected women, the association between a child's HIV infection status and birthweight, gestational age, congenital abnormalities and other perinatal findings.
DESIGN: A prospective study of children born to women known to be HIV-infected at or before the time of delivery enrolled in the European Collaborative Study.
SETTING: Nineteen European centres.
SUBJECTS: A cohort of 853 children with known HIV infection status.
RESULTS: There was no evidence for an HIV dysmorphic syndrome, and the frequency of congenital abnormalities was similar in infected and uninfected children with no consistent pattern of defects. Injecting drug use during pregnancy had the most marked effect on birthweight and gestational age. Multivariate analysis demonstrated a weak association between birthweight and the child's HIV infection status, but this could partly be explained by the confounding effect of maternal immunological HIV status. HIV infection in the infant was not associated with gestational age, and the mean and distribution of gestational age were similar for infected and noninfected children.
CONCLUSIONS: The finding that HIV-infected and noninfected children are of similar birthweight, the absence of a dysmorphic syndrome and no evidence of associated congenital abnormalities suggest that a substantial proportion of infection occurs late in pregnancy or at the time of delivery
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