Search results for "Case-Control Studies"
showing 10 items of 1567 documents
Bias in Studies of Parental Self-reported Occupational Exposure and Childhood Cancer
2003
Several case-control studies have demonstrated positive associations between parental occupational exposures and childhood cancer. However, an overestimation of risk estimates due to recall bias is of concern. The magnitude and nature of this bias were explored using data from a German case-control study on childhood leukemia conducted between 1992 and 1997. A moderate overreporting of occupational exposures by fathers was observed, particularly for the prenatal period. Overreporting was most apparent when the time between exposure and interview was short. It was also found that job titles were no satisfactory substitute for information on specific occupational exposures. The results of thi…
Type 3 innate lymphoid cells producing IL-17 and IL-22 are expanded in the gut, in the peripheral blood, synovial fluid and bone marrow of patients w…
2015
Background The aim of the study was to better characterise the immunological origin and the behaviour of interleukin (IL)-23-responsive innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) in the gut, synovial fluid (SF) and bone marrow (BM) of patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS).Methods ILC1, ILC2 and ILC3 cells were determined and characterised by confocal microscopy and flow cytometry in ileal and BM biopsies, in peripheral blood (PB) and SF mononuclear cells obtained from patients with AS and controls. Mucosal vascular addressin cell adhesion molecule 1 (MADCAM-1), IL-7, IL-15 and aggregates of lymphoid tissue inducer cells (LTi) were evaluated by immunohistochemistry. The in vitro ability of epithelial …
Increased expression of interleukin-32 in the inflamed ileum of ankylosing spondylitis patients
2012
Objective. To study the mRNA expression and protein tissue distribution of IL-32 in ileal biopsy specimens from patients with AS. Methods. Quantitative gene expression analysis, by real-time PCR, of IL-32, IL-1b, IL-10, TNF-a and IFN-g was performed on ileal biopsies of 15 AS and 15 Crohn’s disease (CD) patients and 10 healthy subjects (HSs). IL-32 tissue distribution was evaluated by immunohistochemistry. The effect of IL-32 on the production of IL-10 by intestinal epithelial cell lines was also evaluated. Results. In the ileal specimens of patients with AS and intestinal chronic inflammation, significant up-regulation of IL-32 at both the mRNA and protein levels was found as compared with…
Study of microcirculation in oral lichen planus by video-capillaroscopy.
2007
Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate “in vivo” the oral microcirculatory characteristics in patients with oral lichen planus (OLP) and to discover any differences in microcirculation in comparison with healthy patients. Study design Twenty patients with established diagnosis of OLP and 20 healthy patients were examined in our laboratory by means of contact optical probe videocapillaroscopy. The examined areas for each patient were the right and the left buccal mucosae. Capillary density and total capillary diameter, as well as afferent and efferent loop diameter were studied; the discovery of characteristic (tortuous, branched) loops was also investigated. Results The results wer…
Retrospective case-control study of viral pathogen screening in proliferative verrucous leukoplakia lesions.
2014
Objective This study aimed to survey the presence of known oncoviruses in oral biopsies from patients diagnosed with the aetiologically undetermined proliferative verrucous leukoplakia and compare results to those from milder oral leukoplakia (OL) cases, oral squamous cell carcinoma, a common outcome of the lesions of interest, and healthy controls. Design Blind, retrospective, case–control study. Setting A stomatology unit in an academic Hospital and a Public Health laboratory. Participants Forty patients were divided in four groups. Ten patients had been diagnosed with proliferative verrucous leukoplakia, 10 with OL and 10 with OSCC, and 10 were healthy subjects. Main outcome measures The…
Confocal Endomicroscopy Identifies Loss of Local Barrier Function in the Duodenum of Patients with Crohnʼs Disease and Ulcerative Colitis
2014
Background: Increased cell shedding with gap formation and local barrier dysfunction can be identified endomicroscopically in the terminal ileum of patients with inflammatory bowel disease. We aim to evaluate whether these changes are also present in the duodenum of patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Methods: Fifteen patients with Crohn's disease (CD), 10 patients with ulcerative colitis (UC), and 10 controls underwent fluorescein-aided confocal laser endomicroscopy (CLE). CLE was performed on macroscopically normal antral and duodenal (D1, D2, D3, D4) mucosa. Representative CLE images were prospectively analyzed. Images were scored for the number of epithelial gaps, cell shedding, a…
Airway epithelial dysfunction and mesenchymal transition in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: Role of Oct-4
2021
Abstract The airway epithelium is a dynamic tissue that undergoes slow but constant renewal. Dysregulation of airway epithelial function related to cigarette smoke exposure plays an important role in the pathophysiology of COPD. Oct4 is a transcription factor responsible for maintaining cellular self-renewal and regeneration, and CD146 and CD105/Endoglin are adhesion molecules involved in cell proliferation, differentiation, epithelial-mesenchymal-transition and tissue remodeling. Bronchial biopsy specimens (BBs) were obtained from 7 healthy controls (HC) and 10 COPD and subjected to paraffin embedding; BBs from HC were also used for epithelial cell expansion and pHBEC/ALI (air-liquid inter…
MRI pattern recognition in multiple sclerosis normal-appearing brain areas
2011
ObjectiveHere, we use pattern-classification to investigate diagnostic information for multiple sclerosis (MS; relapsing-remitting type) in lesioned areas, areas of normal-appearing grey matter (NAGM), and normal-appearing white matter (NAWM) as measured by standard MR techniques.MethodsA lesion mapping was carried out by an experienced neurologist for Turbo Inversion Recovery Magnitude (TIRM) images of individual subjects. Combining this mapping with templates from a neuroanatomic atlas, the TIRM images were segmented into three areas of homogenous tissue types (Lesions, NAGM, and NAWM) after spatial standardization. For each area, a linear Support Vector Machine algorithm was used in mult…
Reciprocal altered expression of E-cadherin and P-cadherin in mucous membrane pemphigoid.
2011
E- and P- cadherins are involved in the selective adhesion of epidermal cells. To gain insight into the role of cadherins on the acantholysis of keratinocytes and further investigate the pathogenesis of Mucous Membrane Pemphigoid, we examined the expression of P-cadherin and E-cadherin, in normal human oral mucosa, lesional and peri-lesional mucosa in MMP. Twenty-nine samples from paraffin-embedded specimens of MMP were used for the study. Five specimens of healthy oral mucosa were evaluated as control group. To evaluate the E- and P-Cadherin expression, a mean percentage of positive cells was determined from the percentage of positive cells derived from the analysis of 100 cells in ten ra…
Basilar Artery Diameter Is a Potential Screening Tool for Fabry Disease in Young Stroke Patients
2010
<i>Background:</i> Fabry disease (FD) is a rare hereditary lysosomal storage disease that has been highlighted as a possible etiology of stroke at a young age. Enlarged basilar artery diameters (BADs) have been demonstrated in FD, and we hypothesize that they might be useful for the screening of FD in young stroke patients. The aim of this study was to compare BADs of young stroke patients without FD to those of FD patients and of healthy age-matched controls. <i>Methods:</i> BADs were measured using MR angiography in 3 age- and gender-matched groups: 25 FD patients (aged 36.5 ± 11.0 years), 26 non-FD stroke patients and 20 healthy controls. <i>Results:</i&g…