1,721,065 research outputs found
Everolimus overexposure in a heart transplant patient receiving clarithromycin for the treatment of pneumonia
No full textLong-term decrease in subjective perceived efficacy of immunosuppressive treatment after heart transplantation
No full text
Long-term decrease in the subjective perceived efficacy of the immunosuppressive treatment after heart transplantation
No full textLong-term decrease in subjective perceived efficacy of immunosuppressive treatment after heart transplantation
No full textBackground: Mild, long-term non-compliance with immunosuppressive treatment after organ transplantation is common, and can result in early mortality. One possible source of non-compliance is the belief that the treatment is ineffective or unnecessary. This study investigates patients perception of the efficacy of their immunosuppressive treatment in a sample of heart transplant patients. Methods: A questionnaire was given to 67 heart transplant recipients. The first part of the questionnaire addressed health-related behavior and attitude toward the immunosuppressive medication, using self-report questions. In the second part of the questionnaire, participants evaluated the perceived risk of rejection associated with non-compliant behaviors described in 8 scenarios. Results: The data from the self-report questions showed a mild level of behavioral non-compliance, increasing over time, and a mild level of medication non-compliance. One third of the medication non-compliant patients chose the inefficacy or non-necessity of the treatment as a main cause of non-compliance. The second part of the questionnaire showed that subjective perceived efficacy of the immunosuppressive treatment decreased over time. Conclusions: Medication non-compliance is fostered by many factors. One of these is the belief that the treatment is ineffective or unnecessary. This belief increases over time, and could be the result of a non-clinical selective-attention bias
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
Co-existence of regulated and mechanistic processes in stenotic aortic valve calcification as in the subdermal model
No full textIn vascular tissue ectopic calcification, cells regulate calcium nucleation by sinthesizing mineralization-competent matrix, releasing matrix vesicles and/or by undergoing necrosis, thereby accumulating degeneration products. Of these, using a calcification subdermal model acidic lipids were found to cluster at the surface of cells and arise matrix-vesicle-like bodies, acting as major apatite nucleators, in association with undetermined calcium-binding proteins (Ortolani F et al: Connect Tissue Res 43:44-55, 2002; Ortolani F et al: Histochem J 34: 41-50, 2002; Ortolani F et al: Histol Histopathol 18: 1131-40, 2003). Since cell additional roles may consist in actively regulated processes controlling the expression of intracellular mineralization-related proteins, this study investigated whether calcium-binding proteins Annexin-V (Anx-V) and alkaline phosphatase (AP) could be detected in subdermal model and/or pathological calcification. Two lots of samples excised from (A) porcine aortic valve leaflets (PAVs) retrieved after 1-day- to 4-week-long implantation in rat subcutis, and (B) human aortic valve leaflets (HAVs) explanted from patients affected by valve calcific stenosis were subjected to pre-embedding reactions with 0.05% Cuprolinic Blue in phosphate solutions containing 2.5% glutaraldehyde plus 0.05M MgCl2, pH 4,8 (GA-CB) and processed for TEM analysis. Some semithin sections of GA-CB-reacted samples underwent von-Kossa-silver-staining and re-embedded to achieve reacted ultrathin sections (GA-CB-S). Histological sections underwent von-Kossa-silver-staining (S). Cryo-sections underwent reactions for AP activity and immunohistochemical reactions for Anx-V. LR-White-thin sections underwent immunogold reactions for Anx-V. Polyclonal AB anti-Anx-V R88 was used (courtesy of Klaus von der Mark). Within the first implantation week, all cells exhibited symptoms of active reaction to initial hypoxia, such as extrusion of multiple lamellipodies and accumulation of dense bodies, while only transient, negligible AP activity was observed. Starting from 1-week long sub-cutis implantation, co-localization appeared of GA-CB reactions and GA-CB-S reactions at the edges of cells, matrix-vesicle-like bodies, and then around elastic fibers, confirming calcium nucleation to be primed by peculiar cell degeneration, with acidic lipids undergoing dissociation, acidification, peripherical clustering and subsequent outside spreading. In addition, immunogold labelling showed Anx-V to be closely associated with the accumulating lipid moieties. In HAVs, heterogeneous patterns of calcification were observed at different places, including irregular distribution of sharp positivity for AP reactions. However, at the ultrastructural level, a lot of degenerative features mimicked those in PAVs, concerning initial reactivity of cells, co-localization between GA-CB and GA-CB-S reactions, and immunoreactivity for Anx-V, being the only difference the presence of cell debris edged by proteolipidic layers, instead of entire cells. These data show that several of the different mechanisms which take place in various forms of valve calcific stenosis are closely comparable with those occurring in subdermal-model-induced calcification, including a regulated process, where initial hypoxia might induce Anx-V up-regulation (Denko N et al: Clin Cancer Res 6: 480-7, 2000) followed by a mechanistic process, where this protein is subjected to translocation because of its avidity for the exudating acidic lipids arised from concurrent cell degeneration
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