Search results for " quality."
showing 10 items of 2995 documents
An observational study to evaluate the long-term outcomes of treatment with etanercept in patients with plaque-type psoriasis
2015
Background There is an unmet need for long-term, real-life data on the effect of a drug-free interval between treatment cycles in patients with plaque psoriasis being treated with etanercept, which is licensed for intermittent and continuous treatment. Objective The aim of this study was to determine the average duration of the drug-free interval between etanercept treatment cycles in patients with plaque psoriasis. Methods This was a non-interventional, open-label, multicentre, prospective study in patients for whom the decision had already been made to initiate treatment with etanercept during routine practice in German centres. Clinical outcomes were documented over 36 months with study …
RhinAsthma patient perspective: a short daily asthma and rhinitis QoL assessment.
2012
Background The present study aimed to develop a short validated patient-completed questionnaire, the RhinAsthma Patient Perspective (RAPP), to assess the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with asthma and comorbid allergic rhinitis in clinical practice. Methods A provisional RAPP questionnaire was formed from candidate items identified through retrospective analysis of 333 RHINASTHMA questionnaires. This was then tested on 150 asthma patients with allergic rhinitis. Results Psychometric analyses identified eight items fitting a unidimensional model to form RAPP. Internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha coefficient > 0.8) and agreement with RHINASTHMA (r = −0.31, P = 0.0001) we…
Automatic SCSB analysis of motor and autonomic nervous functions compared with sleep stages
1996
All-night recordings of respiration, ballistocardiogram, and body movements were obtained using the static charge-sensitive bed (SCSB) and automatically analysed data were compared with sleep stages. The mean sum of eight SCSB variability parameters was lowest in slow wave sleep (SWS), higher during stage 2 (S2), and highest in REM sleep. The sum scores of the parameters with the highest correlations with the EEG data were classified into quiet (QS), intermediate (IS) and active (AS) states. SCSB signals during wakefulness, stage 1 and REM sleep were mostly scored as AS, whereas in S2 and especially in SWS they were scored as QS or IS. The SCSB is an easy and inexpensive tool for conducting…
Sleepiness, sleep, and use of sleepiness countermeasures in shift-working long-haul truck drivers
2015
Driver sleepiness is a prevalent phenomenon among professional drivers working unconventional and irregular hours. For compromising occupational and traffic safety, sleepiness has become one of the major conundrums of road transportation. To further elucidate the phenomenon, an on-road study canvassing the under-explored relationship between working hours and sleepiness, sleep, and use of sleepiness countermeasures during and outside statutory rest breaks was conducted. Testing the association between the outcomes and working hours, generalized estimating equations models were fitted on a data collected from 54 long-haul truck drivers (mean 38.1 ± 10.5 years, one female) volunteering in the…
Left-hemispheric dominance for articulation: a prospective study on acute ischaemic dysarthria at different localizations.
2006
Dysarthria is a frequent symptom in cerebral ischaemia. However, speech characteristics of these patients have not previously been investigated in relation to lesion site in a prospective study. We investigated the auditory perceptual features in 62 consecutive patients with dysarthria due to a single, non-space-occupying cerebral infarction confirmed by MRI. Standardized speech samples of all patients were stored within 72 h after stroke onset using a digital tape recorder. Speech samples were assessed independently by two experienced speech therapists, who were unaware of the clinical and neuroradiological findings, using an interval scale ranging from 0 to 6. Separately assessed were fea…
Combined Strength and Endurance Training Improves Health-Related Quality of Life in Healthy Middle-Aged and Older Adults
2012
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of 21 weeks of strength and/or endurance training on health related quality of life (HRQoL) in 39-77 year-old healthy subjects. 108 men and 96 women were randomized into endurance, strength, or combined training groups and controls. Strength-group performed high-intensity strength training while endurance-group performed cycle training. Combined-group completed both training protocols. Leg extension strength and maximal oxygen uptake were measured. HRQoL was assessed with a Finnish version of SF-36 questionnaire. A significant training-induced difference was observed between groups (p=0.038) in the vitality dimension of HRQoL, which was …
Rapid Musculoskeletal Magnetic Resonance Imaging Using Integrated Parallel Acquisition Techniques (IPAT) - Initial Experiences
2003
Purpose To investigate the feasibility of using multiple receiver coil elements for time saving integrated parallel imaging techniques (iPAT) in traumatic musculoskeletal disorders. Material and methods 6 patients with traumatic derangements of the knee, ankle and hip underwent MR imaging at 1.5 T. For signal detection of the knee and ankle, we used a 6-channel body array coil that was placed around the joints, for hip imaging two 4-channel body array coils and two elements of the spine array coil were combined for signal detection. All patients were investigated with a standard imaging protocol that mainly consisted of different turbo spin-echo sequences (PD-, T (2)-weighted TSE with and w…
Alterations in speech and voice in patients with mucopolysaccharidoses.
2013
The mucopolysaccharidoses are a group of lysosomal disorders characterized by abnormal accumulation of glycosaminoglycans within cell lysosomes leading to a variety of signs and symptoms including alterations in speech and voice production. These changes were analysed in 44 patients with mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS) types I, II, and VI using standardized protocols. Compared to healthy individuals the diadochokinetic rate for the fast repetition of syllables was slower and more irregular, the voice-onset time for the voiceless consonant /p/ was shorter, and most patients had a hoarse voice. The fundamental frequency (F0) of sustained spoken vowels was in the normal range for most women and ch…
Pharmaceutical validation as a process of improving the quality of antineoplastic treatment
2006
Objective. To quantify the improvement added by standardization of pharmaceutical validation (PV) of antineoplastic treatment to the processes of prescription and preparation of the pharmacotherapeutic sequence, in terms of prevention and reduction of medication errors (ME). Design. Prospective cohort study during two years (from 2001-2002) for oncohaematologic patients (inpatients and outpatients) that compared the percentage of medication errors detected and resolved and the number of medication errors with potential clinical significance (severity value ≥4) intercepted during PV in both years. Results. During the PV processes, 202 ME were identified and resolved, which is the equivalent…
Iloprost treatment in patients with Raynaud's phenomenon secondary to systemic sclerosis and the quality of life: a new therapeutic protocol
2006
Objectives: to evaluate the clinical efficacy and the effects on the quality of life of Iloprost, a prostacyclin analogue, used, according to a new protocol, in patients with Raynaud’s phenomenon secondary to Systemic Sclerosis. Methods: in this randomized study we treated 30 patients with Iloprost given by intravenous infusion, at progressively increasing doses (starting from 0.5 ng/Kg/min up 2 ng/Kg/min) over a period of 6 hours a day for ten days in two consecutive weeks, with repeated cycles at regular intervals of three months for 18 months. The results were compared with those obtained in 30 other patients, who had received the same drug but with different posologic schemes. Results: …