1,721,084 research outputs found
Iron overload and hepcidin overexpression could play a key role in COVID infection, and may explain vulnerability in elderly, diabetics, and obese patients
No full textBackground: The COVID epidemic hit like a tsunami worldwide. At the time of its arrival in Italy, available literary data were meager, and most of them concerned its epidemiology. World Health Organization proposed guidelines in march 2020, a strategy of treatment has been developed, and a significant number of subsequent articles have been published to understand, prevent, and cure COVID patients. Methods: From the observation of two patients, we performed a careful analysis of scientific literature to unearth the relation between COVID infection, clinical manifestations as pneumonia and thrombosis, and to find out why it frequently affects obese, diabetics, and elderly patients. Results: The analysis shows that hepcidin could repre-sent one of such correlating factors. Hepcidin is most elevated in older age, in non-insulin diabetics patients and in obese people. It is the final target therapy of many medicaments frequently used. Viral disease, and in particular SARS-CoV19, could induce activation of the hepcidin pathway, which in turn is responsible for an increase in the iron load. Excess of iron can lead to cell death by ferroptosis and release into the bloodstream, such as free iron, which in turn has toxic and pro-coagulative effects. Conclusions: Overexpression of hepcidin and iron overload might play a crucial role in COVID infection, becoming potential targets for treatment. Hepcidin could also be considered as a biomarker to measure the effectiveness of our treatments and the res-toration of iron homeostasis the final intent. (www.actabiomedica.it)
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
Composizione elettrolitica ed aminoacidica plasmatica e muscolare in corso di rabdomiolisi da deplezione potassica
No full text
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
Role of blood pressure in the natriuretic response to acute calcium channel blockade in humans
No full textAppropriate 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
Clinical efficacy of ultrasound guided percutaneous drainage of abscesses in patients with leukaemia and lymphoma
No full textAbstract: Ultrasound guided percutaneous drainage (US-PD), a minimally invasive technique, has been reported as highly effective for the treatment of deeply located abscesses, particularly in immunocompromised patients. Therefore, we retrospectively studied its therapeutic efficacy and safety in a series of 14 patients with leukaemia and lymphoma. We collected the clinical and sonographic data of 14 patients with various types of leukaemia and lymphoma. These patients were consecutively observed in four clinical centres with long-term experience with ultrasound guided therapeutic techniques. The cases were analysed according to underlying disease, clinical features, location of the abscess, drainage technique, microbiological data and both short-and long-term outcome. In our series, 11 patients were treated with repeated ultrasound guided needle aspirations (US-NA) and 3 underwent catheter drainage (US-PCD). In 12/14 cases the procedure was successful (86%): the mortality rate was 14%. 5 patients died during the follow-up period because of the underlying disease, without abscess recurrence. No complications were reported. Our data suggest that ultrasound guided percutaneous drainage should be considered the first choice, minimally invasive procedure for the treatment of deeply located abscesses in patients with leukaemia and lymphom
ALK positive lymphohistiocytic variant of anaplastic large cell lymphoma in an adult.
No full textThe lymphohistiocytic (LH) variant of anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) has, for a long time, been considered typical of children and adolescents. The aim of this study is a detailed characterization of a case of this peculiar ALCL subtype affecting an adult patient. DESIGN AND METHODS: A 36-year old male presented with diffuse adenopathy and systemic symptoms (high fever, anorexia, asthenia); a diagnosis of CD30+/ALK+ ALCL, LH variant, was morphologically suspected and corroborated by immunohistochemistry that was crucial for the definitive diagnosis and subtyping. RESULTS: The neoplastic population consisted of cells highly variable in size and shape but more often isolated and largely obscured by a predominant reactive cellular infiltrate of histiocytes and plasma cells. The lymphoma cells exhibited a null non-B non-T antigenic profile, but reacted strongly for the Ber-H2/CD30, EMA, ALKc anti-TIA-1 monoclonal antibodies. The patient underwent chemotherapy plus bone marrow transplantation and, one year after diagnosis, he is well and in complete remission. INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSIONS: Our findings provide additional evidence that: a) ALK+ lymphoma represents a single disease with a broad spectrum of morphology; b) clinicians and pathologists should be aware of the possible occurrence of LH variant of ALK+ ALCL also in adults in whom a favorable response to therapy may be expected despite systemic disease and an aggressive clinical presentation
- …
