Search results for "Alter"

Laboratory medicine and sports : between Scylla and Charybdis

2012

Laboratory medicine is complex and contributes to the diagnosis, therapeutic monitoring and follow-up of acquired and inherited human disorders. The regular practice of physical exercise provides important benefits in heath and disease and sports medicine is thereby receiving growing focus from almost each and every clinical discipline, including laboratory medicine. Sport-laboratory medicine is a relatively innovative branch of laboratory science, which can provide valuable contributions to the diagnosis and follow-up of athletic injuries, and which is acquiring a growing clinical significance to support biomechanics and identify novel genomics and "exercisenomics" patterns that can help i…

Position paper Statin intolerance – an attempt at a unified definition. Position paper from an International Lipid Expert Panel

2015

Statins are one of the most commonly prescribed drugs in clinical practice. They are usually well tolerated and effectively prevent cardiovascular events. Most adverse effects associated with statin therapy are muscle-related. The recent statement of the European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS) has focused on statin associated muscle symptoms (SAMS), and avoided the use of the term 'statin intolerance'. Although muscle syndromes are the most common adverse effects observed after statin therapy, excluding other side effects might underestimate the number of patients with statin intolerance, which might be observed in 10-15% of patients. In clinical practice, statin intolerance limits effective…

Myofascial pain syndrome associated with trigger points: A literature review. (I): Epidemiology, clinical treatment and etiopathogeny

2009

Over the last few decades, advances have been made in the understanding of myofascial pain syndrome epidemiology, clinical characteristics and aetiopathogenesis, but many unknowns remain. An integrated hypothesis has provided a greater understanding of the physiopathology of trigger points, which may allow the development of new diagnostic, and above all, therapeutic methods, as well as the establishment of prevention policies and protocols by the health profession. Nevertheless, randomized studies are needed to provide a better understanding and detection of the different factors involved in the origin of trigger points.

Cost Of Multimorbidity: The Influence Of Ambulatory Pharmaceutical And Hospital Expenditure.

2015

The timing of introduction of pharmaceutical innovations in seven European countries

2014

RATIONALE, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: Differences in the performance of medical care may be due to variation in the introduction and diffusion of medical innovations. The objective of this paper is to compare seven European countries (United Kingdom, the Netherlands, West Germany, France, Spain, Estonia and Sweden) with regard to the year of introduction of six specific pharmaceutical innovations (antiretroviral drugs, cimetidine, tamoxifen, cisplatin, oxalaplatin and cyclosporin) that may have had important population health impacts. METHODS: We collected information on introduction and further diffusion of drugs using searches in the national and international literature, and questionnaires to …

Antiproliferative Potential of African Medicinal Plants

2013

Increasingly, cancer is recognized as a critical public health problem in Africa. Medicinal plants constitute a good alternative treatment, considering the rich biodiversity of the continent. Scientific evidence of the antiproliferative activity of African medicinal plants is more and more common. The most prominent results reported include the cytotoxic effects of plants of the families Moraceae, Guttiferae, Fabaceae, as well as compounds of the groups of terpenoids and phenolics derived from African plants.

Quality Control for Medicinal Plants

2012

The scientific basis of evidence-based medicine is still poor in herbal medicine. For the integration of herbal medicine into western medicine, internationally accepted standards are necessitated, including quality control of herbal products as well as preclinical and clinical evidence of safety and efficacy. In recent years, thriving innovative technologies emerged in phytotherapy research, e.g. DNA-based technologies for the authentication of plant species, good practice guidelines for standardized experimentations. High-quality herbal materials should undergo rigorous examination by analytical techniques for chemoprofiling of medicinal herbs, as well as toxicological methods to detect co…

Virtual reality exposure-based therapy for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder: a review of its efficacy, the adequacy of the treatment p…

2015

Introduction The essential feature of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the development of characteristic symptoms following exposure to one or more traumatic events. According to evidence-based intervention guidelines and empirical evidence, one of the most extensively researched and validated treatments for PTSD is prolonged exposure to traumatic events; however, exposure therapy can present some limitations. Virtual reality (VR) can help to improve prolonged exposure because it creates fictitious, safe, and controllable situations that can enhance emotional engagement and acceptance. Objective In addition to carrying out a review to evaluate the efficacy of VR exposure-based thera…

Efficacy and safety of ranibizumab with or without panretinal laser photocoagulation versus laser photocoagulation alone in proliferative diabetic re…

2019

Purpose Panretinal photocoagulation (PRP) is the current standard of care in proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR). However, treatment with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor agents might offer better patient outcomes with fewer side-effects. The PRIDE study aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of ranibizumab with or without PRP compared with PRP alone in patients with PDR. Methods A total of 106 PDR patients without diabetic macular oedema were randomized to receive ranibizumab 0.5 mg monotherapy (n = 35), PRP (n = 35) or combined ranibizumab 0.5 mg/PRP (n = 36). The primary objective of this 12-month, multicentre, phase II study was to investigate the change in area of retinal …

Objectifying acupuncture effects by lung function and numeric rating scale in patients undergoing heart surgery.

2012

Rationale. Poststernotomy pain and impaired breathing are common clinical problems in early postoperative care following heart surgery. Insufficiently treated pain increases the risk of pulmonary complications. High-dose opioids are used for pain management, but they may cause side effects such as respiratory depression.Study Design. We performed a prospective, randomized, controlled, observer-blinded, three-armed clinical trial with 100 patients. Group 1 (n=33) and Group 2 (n=34) received one 20 min session of standardized acupuncture treatment with two different sets of acupoints. Group 3 (n=33) served as standard analgesia control without additional intervention. Results. Primary endpoin…