Search results for " Middle Aged"
showing 10 items of 813 documents
Antiinflammatory Therapy with Canakinumab for Atherosclerotic Disease
2017
Background: Experimental and clinical data suggest that reducing inflammation without affecting lipid levels may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. Yet, the inflammatory hypothesis of atherothrombosis has remained unproved. Methods: We conducted a randomized, double-blind trial of canakinumab, a therapeutic monoclonal antibody targeting interleukin-1β, involving 10,061 patients with previous myocardial infarction and a high-sensitivity C-reactive protein level of 2 mg or more per liter. The trial compared three doses of canakinumab (50 mg, 150 mg, and 300 mg, administered subcutaneously every 3 months) with placebo. The primary efficacy end point was nonfatal myocardial infarction, …
Dynamics of Torque Teno virus plasma DNAemia in allogeneic stem cell transplant recipients
2017
Abstract Background Torque Teno virus (TTV) plasma DNA load directly correlate with the level of immunosuppresion in different clinical settings. It is uncertain whether this may be the case in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients (allo-HSCT). Objectives We characterized the dynamics of TTV DNAemia in patients undergoing T-cell replete allo-SCT. Study design Retrospective single-center observational study including 72 allo-HSCT patients. Plasma TTV DNA loads were quantified before initiating the conditioning regimen and at different time-points after transplant by real-time PCR. White blood cells (WBC) and absolute lymphocyte counts (ALC) were measured by flow cytometry.…
Vitamin D receptor polymorphisms and 25-hydroxyvitamin D in a group of Sicilian multiple sclerosis patients
2016
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an auto-immune disease whose etiology remains controversial. Both genetic and environmental factors are thought to be involved in the risk of developing the disease. The purpose of our study was to assess the association of Vitamin D receptor (VDR) polymorphisms with MS and to investigate the interaction of these polymorphisms with vitamin D levels. A total of 179 Sicilian subjects, including 104 MS patients and 75 healthy controls, were studied. The most common VDR polymorphisms (Fok-I, Bsm-I, Taq-I and Apa-I) were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analyses in both groups and serum 25-hydroxyv…
Mediterranean diet and sars-cov-2 infection: Is there any association? a proof-of-concept study
2021
The aim of this observational study was investigating the possible correlation between adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MeD) and SARS-COV-2 infection rates and severity among healthcare professionals (HCPs). An online self-administrated questionnaire (evaluating both MeD adherence and dietary habits) was filled out by HCPs working in Piedmont (Northern Italy) from 15 January to 28 February 2021. Out of the 1206 questionnaires collected, 900 were considered reliable and analyzed. Individuals who reported the SARS-COV-2 infection (n = 148) showed a significantly lower MeD score, with a lower adherence in fruit, vegetables, cereals, and olive oil consumption. In a logistic regression model…
Expression of salivary biomarkers in patients with oral mucositis: evaluation by SELDI-TOF/MS.
2016
Objective: This study aims to evaluate changes in proteomic salivary profile of patients with oral mucositis after adjuvant cancer treatments. Materials and Methods: Samples were collected from patients after adjuvant cancer therapies, and were analyzed by means of SELDI/TOF. Patients were separated in two groups: patients affected by mucositis (MUCOSITIS) and patient without mucositis (NO MUCOSITIS). All patients were divided in function of the anticancer treatment: patients who had radiotherapy (MUCOSITIS RADIO), had not radiotherapy (MUCOSITIS NO RADIO), had chemotherapy (MUCOSITIS CHEMO), and those who had not chemotherapy (MUCOSITIS NO CHEMO). Statistical evaluation PCA (Principal Comp…
Hypomethylating agents in relapsed and refractory AML: outcomes and their predictors in a large international patient cohort.
2018
Although hypomethylating agents (HMAs) are frequently used in the frontline treatment of older acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients, little is known about their effectiveness in relapsed or primary treatment–refractory (RR)-AML. Using an international multicenter retrospective database, we studied the effectiveness of HMAs in RR-AML and evaluated for predictors of response and overall survival (OS). A total of 655 patients from 12 centers received azacitidine (57%) or decitabine (43%), including 290 refractory (44%) and 365 relapsed (56%) patients. Median age at diagnosis was 65 years. Best response to HMAs was complete remission (CR; 11%) or CR with incomplete count recovery (CRi; 5.3%). …
Observational prospective study on Lactobacillus plantarum P 17630 in the prevention of vaginal infections, during and after systemic antibiotic ther…
2018
We performed a prospective cohort parallel observational study on the use of Lactobacillus plantarum P 17630 in the prevention of vaginal infections. Eligible were women with a diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis (15 days) and documented history of recurrent vaginal infections; and/or cystitis (15 days); and/or treatment with antibiotics for bacterial respiratory tract infections during the week before the study entry. Study subjects were prescribed Lactobacillus plantarum P 17630 100.000.000 UFC one vaginal capsule per day for 6 days, then a capsule per week for 16 weeks. Eligible subjects were enrolled in two parallel cohorts: 85 women using (group A) and 39 not using (group B) Lactobacillu…
The CD68+/H-ferritin+ cells colonize the lymph nodes of the patients with adult onset Still's disease and are associated with increased extracellular…
2015
Summary In this work, we aimed to evaluate the levels of ferritin enriched in H subunits (H-ferritin) and ferritin enriched in L subunits (L-ferritin) and the cells expressing these two molecules in the lymph node (LN) biopsies obtained from adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD) patients, and the possible correlation among these data and the severity of the disease. Ten patients with AOSD underwent LN biopsy. All the samples were stained by immunofluorescence. A statistical analysis was performed to estimate the possible correlation among both H-ferritin and L-ferritin tissue expression and the clinical picture of the disease. Furthermore, the same analysis was performed to evaluate the possib…
A Hazelnut-Enriched Diet Modulates Oxidative Stress and Inflammation Gene Expression without Weight Gain
2019
Introduction. Inflammation is associated with obesity condition and plays a pivotal role in the onset and progression of many chronic diseases. Among several nutraceutical foods, hazelnuts (Corylus avellana L.) are considered an excellent anti-inflammatory and hypolipidemic food being the second richest source of monounsaturated fatty acids among nuts and because they are rich in vitamins, minerals, and phenolic compounds. Materials and Methods. A prospective pilot clinical trial on 24 healthy volunteers who consumed daily, as a snack, 40 g of hazelnuts (261.99 kcal/1096.17 kJ) for six weeks was conducted. Anthropometric measurements, body composition analysis, and nutrigenomic analysis on …
Quantitative and qualitative profiles of circulating monocytes may help identifying tuberculosis infection and disease stages
2017
Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the most important cause of morbidity and death among infectious diseases, and continuous efforts are needed to improve diagnostic tools and therapy. Previous published studies showed that the absolute cells number of monocytes or lymphocytes in peripheral blood or yet the ratio of monocytes to lymphocytes displayed the ability to predict the risk of active TB. In the present study we evaluated the ratio of monocytes to lymphocytes variation and we also analyzed the ex-vivo expression of CD64 on monocytes as tools to identify biomarkers for discriminating TB stages. Significant differences were found when the average ratio of monocytes to lymphocytes of active TB…