Search results for " Positive"

Association between climate and new daily diagnoses of COVID-19

2020

AbstractBackgroundAlthough evidence is accumulating that climate conditions may positively or negatively influence the scale of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreaks, uncertainty remains concerning the real impact of climate factors on viral transmission. Methods. The number of new daily cases of COVID-19 diagnosed in Verona (Italy) was retrieved from the official website of Veneto Region, while information on daily weather parameters in the same area was downloaded from IlMeteo website, a renowned Italian technological company specialized in weather forecasts. The search period ranged between March 1 to November 11, 2020. The number of new daily COVID-19 cases and meteorological da…

Prenatal Ultrasound Screening: False Positive Soft Markers May Alter Maternal Representations and Mother-Infant Interaction

2012

Background In up to 5% of pregnancies, ultrasound screening detects a “soft marker” (SM) that places the foetus at risk for a severe abnormality. In most cases, prenatal diagnostic work-up rules out a severe defect. We aimed to study the effects of false positive SM on maternal emotional status, maternal representations of the infant, and mother-infant interaction. Methodology and Principal Findings Utilizing an extreme-case prospective case control design, we selected from a group of 244 women undergoing ultrasound, 19 pregnant women whose foetus had a positive SM screening and a reassuring diagnostic work up, and 19 controls without SM matched for age and education. In the third trimester…

Estimating brain connectivity when few data points are available: Perspectives and limitations

2017

Methods based on the use of multivariate autoregressive modeling (MVAR) have proved to be an accurate and flexible tool for the estimation of brain functional connectivity. The multivariate approach, however, implies the use of a model whose complexity (in terms of number of parameters) increases quadratically with the number of signals included in the problem. This can often lead to an underdetermined problem and to the condition of multicollinearity. The aim of this paper is to introduce and test an approach based on Ridge Regression combined with a modified version of the statistics usually adopted for these methods, to broaden the estimation of brain connectivity to those conditions in …

Determining a healthy reference range and factors potentially influencing PRO-C3 – A biomarker of liver fibrosis

2021

Background & Aims Progressive fibrosis has been identified as the major predictor of mortality in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Several biomarkers are currently being evaluated for their ability to substitute the liver biopsy as the reference standard. Recent clinical studies in NAFLD/NASH patients support the utility of PRO-C3, a marker of type III collagen formation, as a marker for the degree of fibrosis, disease activity, and effect of treatment. Here we establish the healthy reference range, optimal sample handling conditions for both short- and long-term serum storage, and robustness for the PRO-C3 assay. Methods PRO-C3 was measured in 269 healthy volunteers…

THE INTERPRETAZION OF DIAGNOSTIC TEST: A PRIMER OF ALLERGIST. PRICIPLES OF EVIDENCE BASED MEDICINE TO OBTAIN A PRECISE DIAGNOSIS

2008

Nurses' experiences by using heated humidified high flow cannula to premature infants versus nasal continuous positive airway pressure

2016

Abstract Background Some premature infants are now being treated with heated humidified high flow nasal cannula (HHHFNC) instead of nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP). Purpose To explore nurses' experiences of using HHHFNC compared with nCPAP for premature infants. Method Six qualitative in-depth interviews were completed with nurses at two different newborn intensive care units. Results Preterm infants showed greater satisfaction with HHHFNC than nasal continuous positive airway pressure. HHHFNC was also associated with fewer pressure injuries and less facial discomfort, and an increased bonding between baby and parent. However, HHHFNC gave less ventilation support than nCPA…

2015

High-throughput detection of protein interactions has had a major impact in our understanding of the intricate molecular machinery underlying the living cell, and has permitted the construction of very large protein interactomes. The protein networks that are currently available are incomplete and a significant percentage of their interactions are false positives. Fortunately, the structural properties observed in good quality social or technological networks are also present in biological systems. This has encouraged the development of tools, to improve the reliability of protein networks and predict new interactions based merely on the topological characteristics of their components. Sinc…

Compliance to ventilatory treatment in a cohort of patients on home CPAP or NIV: analysis by diagnosis, treatment type, and comorbidities

2019

Background: Patients on home continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) or noninvasive ventilation (NIV) show large variability in compliance to treatment. Aim: To identify predictors of poor compliance, we evaluated compliance to treatment in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), obesity hypoventilation syndrome (OHS), and OSA-chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) overlap syndrome. Methods: We analyzed clinical and compliance data provided by a single home care provider, in 602 patients (n=442 OSA, males (M) 308; 38 OHS M=15, and 122 overlap M=111) on home CPAP/NIV in the province of Agrigento, Italy, after one year of treatment. The following variables were considered: age, …

Final 10-year results of the Breast International Group 2-98 phase III trial and the role of Ki67 in predicting benefit of adjuvant docetaxel in pati…

2015

Aim: Breast International Group (BIG) 2-98 is a randomised phase III trial that tested the effect of adding docetaxel, either in sequence to or in combination with anthracycline-based adjuvant chemotherapy, in women with node-positive breast cancer (BC). Here, we present the 10-year final trial safety and efficacy analyses. We also report an exploratory analysis on the predictive value of Ki67 for docetaxel efficacy, in the BIG 2-98 and using a pooled analysis of three other randomised trials. Patients and methods: 2887 patients were randomly assigned in a 2 x 2 trial design to one of four treatments. The primary objective was to evaluate the overall efficacy of docetaxel on disease free su…

Imatinib combined with mitoxantrone/etoposide and cytarabine is an effective induction therapy for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia in myeloid …

2007

BACKGROUND Despite advances in drug therapy and allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT), the prognosis of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in blast crisis remains poor. Imatinib has demonstrated synergistic effects in vitro with mitoxantrone, etoposide, and cytarabine. METHODS A Phase I/II trial was performed in patients with CML myeloid blast crisis. Patients were treated with imatinib + mitoxantrone/etoposide in four cohorts: mitoxantrone 10 mg/m2/day and etoposide 100 mg/m2/day for 2 or 3 consecutive days and imatinib 600 mg/day from Day 15 (cohorts 1 and 2) or from Day 1 (cohorts 3 and 4). After hematologic reconstitution after the cytopenic phase, cytarabine was giv…