Search results for "Disease course"
showing 10 items of 24 documents
The more the merrier? Scoring, statistics and animal welfare in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis.
2016
Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) is a frequently used animal model for the investigation of autoimmune processes in the central nervous system. As such, EAE is useful for modelling certain aspects of multiple sclerosis, a human autoimmune disease that leads to demyelination and axonal destruction. It is an important tool for investigating pathobiology, identifying drug targets and testing drug candidates. Even though EAE is routinely used in many laboratories and is often part of the routine assessment of knockouts and transgenes, scoring of the disease course has not become standardized in the community, with at least 83 published scoring variants. Varying scales with diffe…
HBV-DNA suppression and disease course in HBV cirrhosis patients on long-term lamivudine therapy
2005
In hepatitis B virus (HBV) cirrhosis patients on long-term lamivudine (LAM), the relationships between HBV suppression, development of viral resistance and disease outcome are unclear. We analysed the dynamic of serum HBV-DNA and its relationship with the clinical course of 59 patients (52 males, mean age 51.4 ±8.4 years, 12 HBeAg positive and 47 HBeAg negative, and 57 genotype D and two genotype A) with cirrhosis (45 in Child-Turcotte-Pugh class A) and high levels of serum HBV-DNA (median 14.7x107 genomes/ml) treated with LAM [median (range): 44 (15–78) months]. A total of 50 patients (84.7%) achieved a virological response (serum HBV-DNA negative by PCR) during the first 6 months of ther…
Atypical CIDP: diagnostic criteria, progression and treatment response. Data from the Italian CIDP Database
2019
ObjectivesA few variants of chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) have been described, but their frequency and evolution to typical CIDP remain unclear. To determine the frequency and characteristics of the CIDP variants, their possible evolution to typical CIDP, and treatment response.MethodsWe applied a set of diagnostic criteria to 460 patients included in a database of Italian patients with CIDP. Clinical characteristics and treatment response were reviewed for each patient. The Kaplan-Meier curve was used to estimate the progression rate from atypical to typical CIDP.ResultsAt the time of inclusion, 376 (82%) patients had a diagnosis of typical CIDP while 84 …
Correlation between cell free DNA levels and medical evaluation of disease progression in systemic lupus erythematosus patients
2014
High levels of cell free DNA (cfDNA) in human blood plasma have been described in patients with autoimmune diseases. The aim of this study was to determine the levels of cfDNA in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients and to assess fluctuations of cfDNA concentrations compared to the course of disease progression under standard treatment. Therefore, nuclear cfDNA concentrations in plasma were measured in 59 SLE patients and 59 healthy controls. Follow-up blood plasma was collected from 27 of the 59 SLE patients. Patients were characterised by clinical parameters (antinuclear antibodies (ANA), anti-dsDNA-antibodies, C3, C4, and CRP), SLE disease activity index (SLEDAI) and medical thera…
Clinical and magnetic resonance imaging predictors of disease progression in multiple sclerosis: a nine-year follow-up study.
2014
Objective: The objective of this paper is to identify clinical or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) predictors of long-term clinical progression in a large cohort of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. Methods: A total of 241 relapsing–remitting (RR) MS patients were included in a nine-year follow-up (FU) study. The reference MRIs were acquired at baseline (BL) as part of a multicenter, cross-sectional, clinical-MRI study. Volumetric MRI metrics were measured by a fully automated, operator-independent, multi-parametric segmentation method. Clinical progression was evaluated as defined by: conversion from RR to secondary progressive (SP) disease course; progression of Expanded Disability Status…
Lyme arthritis in Southern Norway - an endemic area for Lyme Borreliosis
2014
Published version of an article in the journal: BMC Infectious Diseases. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2334-14-185 Open Access Background: Despite Southern Norway is an endemic area for Lyme borreliosis there is a lack of data on Lyme arthritis (LA). In the literature controversies exist if acute LA can develop into chronic arthritis. Our objective was to identify and characterize patients with LA in Southern Norway and explore disease course after antibiotic treatment.Methods: Patients aged 20 years or older with arthritis and a positive serology for Borrelia burgdorferi infection (IgG and/or IgM) suspected of having LA were consecutively recruited ei…
Reconstructive plastic surgery in the treatment of vulvar carcinomas
2005
Abstract Objective The results obtained using plastic surgery reconstruction in 207 patients with a primary or recurrent vulvar carcinoma were analyzed with regard to the surgical procedures applied, pre-treatment and post-operative findings, along with the long-term oncological disease course. Study design Standardized data concerning the surgical procedures applied and clinical factors were collected in a databank and statistically analyzed. Results The flaps employed were termed either ‘local' (cutaneous or fasciocutaneous; n =84) or ‘regional' (myocutaneous, n =123). For local flaps, the rate of secondary healing was 31%, dropping to 20% for regional flaps. Such healing disturbances oft…
Teprotumumab Efficacy, Safety, and Durability in Longer-Duration Thyroid Eye Disease and Re-treatment
2022
PURPOSE To evaluate teprotumumab safety/efficacy in patients with thyroid eye disease (TED) who were nonresponsive or who experienced a disease flare. DESIGN The Treatment of Graves' Orbitopathy to Reduce Proptosis with Teprotumumab Infusions in an Open-Label Clinical Extension Study (OPTIC-X) is a teprotumumab treatment and re-treatment trial following the placebo-controlled teprotumumab Phase 3 Treatment of Graves' Orbitopathy (Thyroid Eye Disease) to Reduce Proptosis with Teprotumumab Infusions in a Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Clinical Study (OPTIC) trial. PARTICIPANTS Patients who previously received placebo (n = 37) or teprotumumab (n = 14) in OPTIC. METHODS OPTIC nonresponders or …
Molecular surveillance of pandemic influenza A(H1N1) viruses circulating in Italy from May 2009 to February 2010: association between haemagglutinin …
2010
Haemagglutinin sequences of pandemic influenza A(H1N1) viruses circulating in Italy were examined, focusing on amino acid changes at position 222 because of its suggested pathogenic relevance. Among 169 patients, the D222G substitution was detected in three of 52 (5.8%) severe cases and in one of 117 (0.9%) mild cases, whereas the D222E mutation was more frequent and evenly distributed in mild (31.6%) and severe cases (38.4%). A cluster of D222E viruses among school children confirms reported human-to-human transmission of viruses mutated at amino acid position 222.
Point of view of the Italians pediatric scientific societies about the pediatric care during the COVID-19 lockdown: What has changed and future prosp…
2020
Abstract Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is currently rare in children and they seem to have a milder disease course and better prognosis than adults. However, SARS-Cov-2 pandemic has indirectly caused problems in pediatric medical assistance. In view of this we wanted to draw a picture of what happened during health emergency and analyze future prospects for restarting. Methods We involved the Italian pediatric scientific societies institutionally collected in the Italian Federation of Associations and Scientific Societies of the Pediatric Area (FIARPED); We sent a questionnaire to all scientific societies about the pediatric care activity during the COVID-19 emergency a…