Search results for " Middle"
showing 10 items of 1097 documents
Fibrosis staging in chronic hepatitis C: Analysis of discordance between transient elastography and liver biopsy
2009
Summary. In chronic hepatitis C, transient elastography (TE) accurately identifies cirrhosis, but its ability to assess significant fibrosis (Metavir ≥ F2) is variable. Constitutional and liver disease-related factors may influence TE and here we examined the variables associated with differences. Three hundred consecutive hepatitis C virus (HCV)-RNA positive patients had biochemical tests, TE and a biopsy performed on the same day. The Dale model was used to identify the variables associated with discordance between biopsy and elastography results. In 97 patients (34.2%), TE and histological assessment were discordant. Seventy-six of 286 (26.6%) had stage ≥F2 and TE < 7.1 kPa (false negat…
Mortality risk according to different clinical characteristics of first episode of liver decompensation in cirrhotic patients: a nationwide, prospect…
2013
Abstract OBJECTIVES: The occurrence of decompensation marks a crucial turning point in the course of cirrhosis. The purpose of this study was to assess the risk of mortality according to the clinical characteristics of first decompensation, considering also the impact of acute-on-chronic liver failure (AoCLF). METHODS: We conducted a prospective nationwide inception cohort study in Italy. Decompensation was defined by the presence of ascites, either overt or detected by ultrasonography (UD), gastroesophageal variceal bleeding (GEVB), and hepatic encephalopathy (HE). AoCLF was defined according to the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver criteria. Multivariable Cox proportion…
Usefulness of longitudinal systolic strain and delayed enhancement cardiac magnetic resonance in depicting risk of supraventricular arrythmias in pat…
2022
Background: Myocarditis have variable clinical presentation, evolution and prognosis. Aim of our study was to evaluate the value of speckle tracking echocardiography and cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) in the short-term prediction of supraventricular arrhythmias (SVA) in patients with acute myocarditis. Methods: Seventy patients (mean age 31±14 years old) with acute myocarditis and preserved left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) were enrolled. Longitudinal systolic strain (LS) of the left ventricle (LV), mechanical dispersion (MD) and CMR with quantitative measurement of delayed enhancement (DE) were performed in a subset of 43 patients. Logistic regression and ROC analysis were used t…
Physical injury and depression in six low- and middle-income countries: A nationally representative study.
2019
BACKGROUND: Studies on the association between physical injury and depression in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are scarce. Therefore, our goal was to analyze the association between physical injury and depression using nationally representative data from six LMICs. METHODS: Cross-sectional data from the Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE) survey (2007-2010) were analyzed (N?=?42,489). Questions based on the World Mental Health Survey version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview were used for the endorsement of past 12-month DSM-IV depression. Any injury in our analysis referred to having experienced traffic injury or other injury in the past 12 months. M…
A semi-automatic approach for epicardial adipose tissue segmentation and quantification on cardiac CT scans
2019
Abstract Many studies have shown that epicardial fat is associated with a higher risk of heart diseases. Accurate epicardial adipose tissue quantification is still an open research issue. Considering that manual approaches are generally user-dependent and time-consuming, computer-assisted tools can considerably improve the result repeatability as well as reduce the time required for performing an accurate segmentation. Unfortunately, fully automatic strategies might not always identify the Region of Interest (ROI) correctly. Moreover, they could require user interaction for handling unexpected events. This paper proposes a semi-automatic method for Epicardial Fat Volume (EFV) segmentation a…
Tauroursodeoxycholic acid in the treatment of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
2015
Background and purpose: Tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA) is a hydrophilic bile acid that is produced in the liver and used for treatment of chronic cholestatic liver diseases. Experimental studies suggest that TUDCA may have cytoprotective and anti-apoptotic action, with potential neuroprotective activity. A proof of principle approach was adopted to provide preliminary data regarding the efficacy and tolerability of TUDCA in a series of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Methods: As a proof of principle, using a double-blind placebo controlled design, 34 ALS patients under treatment with riluzole who were randomized to placebo or TUDCA (1 g twice daily for 54 weeks) were e…
The rs2294918 E434K variant modulates patatin-like phospholipase domain-containing 3 expression and liver damage
2016
The patatin-like phosholipase domain-containing 3 (PNPLA3) rs738409 polymorphism (I148M) is a major determinant of hepatic fat and predisposes to the full spectrum of liver damage in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The aim of this study was to evaluate whether additional PNPLA3 coding variants contribute to NAFLD susceptibility, first in individuals with contrasting phenotypes (with early-onset NAFLD vs. very low aminotransferases) and then in a large validation cohort. Rare PNPLA3 variants were not detected by sequencing coding regions and intron-exon boundaries either in 142 patients with early-onset NAFLD nor in 100 healthy individuals with alanine aminotransferase22/20 IU/mL. …
Neoangiogenesis-related genes are hallmarks of fast-growing hepatocellular carcinomas and worst survival. Results from a prospective study
2016
Objective The biological heterogeneity of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) makes prognosis difficult. We translate the results of a genome-wide high-throughput analysis into a tool that accurately predicts at presentation tumour growth and survival of patients with HCC.Design Ultrasound surveillance identified HCC in 78 (training set) and 54 (validation set) consecutive patients with cirrhosis. Patients underwent two CT scans 6 weeks apart (no treatment in-between) to determine tumour volumes (V-0 and V-1) and calculate HCC doubling time. Baseline-paired HCC and surrounding tissue biopsies for microarray study (Agilent Whole Human Genome Oligo Microarrays) were also obtained. Predictors of su…
Characterization of 14 novel deletions underlying Rubinstein–Taybi syndrome: an update of the CREBBP deletion repertoire
2015
Rubinstein–Taybi syndrome (RSTS) is a rare, clinically heterogeneous disorder characterized by cognitive impairment and several multiple congenital anomalies. The syndrome is caused by almost private point mutations in the CREBBP (~55 % of cases) and EP300 (~8 %) genes. The CREBBP mutational spectrum is variegated and characterized by point mutations (30–50 %) and deletions (~10 %). The latter are diverse in size and genomic position and remove either the whole CREBBP gene and its flanking regions or only an intragenic portion. Here, we report 14 novel CREBBP deletions ranging from single exons to the whole gene and flanking regions which were identified by applying complementary cytomolecu…
Association between depression and subjective cognitive complaints in 47 low- and middle-income countries
2022
People with depression and subjective cognitive complaints (SCC) may be at particularly high risk for developing dementia. However, to date, studies on depression and SCC are limited mainly to single high-income countries. Thus, the aim of the present study was to investigate the association between depression and SCC in adults from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Cross-sectional, community-based data were analyzed from the World Health Survey. Two questions on subjective memory and learning complaints in the past 30 days were used to create a SCC scale ranging from 0 (No SCC) to 100 (worse SCC). ICD-10 Diagnostic Criteria for Research was used for the diagnosis of subsyndromal de…