Search results for "MAC"
showing 10 items of 24950 documents
An update on the relationships between rheumatoid arthritis and atherosclerosis
2010
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disease. Cardiovascular events are the most important cause of mortality and morbidity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Beyond the traditional cardiovascular risk factors, chronic systemic inflammation has been shown to be a crucial factor in atherosclerosis development and progression from endothelial dysfunction to plaque rupture and thrombosis. Many studies have shown that atherosclerosis is not a passive event like accumulation of lipids in the vessel walls; by contrast, it represents an active inflammation of the vessels. Inflammatory cells such as macrophages, monocytes and T cells play important roles in the development of both rhe…
Ritz Solution for Transient Analysis of Variable-Stiffness Shell Structures
2020
The dynamic response of thin-walled structures is driven by mass and stiffness distribution. As such, variable-stiffness (VS) composites offer opportunities to tune structural dynamic responses. To this extent, efficient analysis tools become increasingly important for structural analysis and design purposes. In this work, an efficient and versatile Ritz method for free vibrations and linear transient analysis of VS doubly curved shell structures is presented. VS shell structures are modeled as an assembly of shell-like domains. The shell kinematics is based on the first-order shear deformation theory, and no further assumption is made on the shallowness or on the thinness of the structure.…
Stiffness and Reinforcement Effect of electrical Resistance Strain Gauges
2007
: The increasing use of low-modulus materials, on which the reinforcement effect of the electrical resistance strain gauge is not negligible, has re-opened the research interest into this issue. This study deals with the evaluation of stiffness, and of the strain gauge Young's modulus involved in the estimation of both the global and the local reinforcement effect; the relationship between the strain gauge stiffness and the local reinforcement effect is also analysed. In particular, the experimental technique used to determine the stiffness of some commercial strain gauges is described. The results show that the strain gauge stiffness alone does not permit an accurate evaluation of the loc…
Persistence ofYersinia antigens in peripheral blood cells from patients withYersinia enterocolitica O:3 infection with or without reactive arthritis
1998
Objective To assess the persistence of bacterial antigens in peripheral blood cells from patients with Yersinia enterocolitica O:3-triggered reactive arthritis (ReA). Methods Peripheral blood samples were obtained from 20 patients with Y enterocolitica O:3 infection (11 with ReA and 9 without). These samples were studied by immunochemical techniques for the presence of Yersinia antigens at the beginning of infection and up to 4 years thereafter. Synovial fluid samples from 6 of the 11 ReA patients were also studied. Results The Yersinia antigens lipopolysaccharide and heat-shock protein (HSP) were detected in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and polymorphonuclear phagocytes from all patie…
Novel Digital Technique to Quantify the Area and Volume of Cement Remaining and Enamel Removed after Fixed Multibracket Appliance Therapy Debonding: …
2020
The aim of this study was to construct a novel, repeatable, reproducible, and accurate measurement protocol for the area and volume of the remaining cement after removal of fixed multibracket appliances, the area and volume of remaining cement after cement removal, the area and volume of enamel removed after cement removal, and the volume of cement used to adhere fixed multibracket appliances. A total of 30 brackets were cemented and removed with over 30 extracted teeth embedded into three experimental models of epoxy resin. The models were scanned before and after bracket placement, bracket debonding, and polishing the remaining cement. The brackets were submitted to micro-computed tomogra…
CMC is more than a measure of corticospinal tract integrity in acute stroke patients
2021
In healthy subjects, motor cortex activity and electromyographic (EMG) signals from contracting contralateral muscle show coherence in the beta (15-30 Hz) range. Corticomuscular coherence (CMC) is considered a sign of functional coupling between muscle and brain. Based on prior studies, CMC is altered in stroke, but functional significance of this finding has remained unclear. Here, we examined CMC in acute stroke patients and correlated the results with clinical outcome measures and corticospinal tract (CST) integrity estimated with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). During isometric contraction of the extensor carpi radialis muscle, EMG and magnetoencephalographic oscillatory signals were re…
Scientific evidence on the usefulness of intraarticular hyaluronic acid injection in the management of temporomandibular dysfunction
2010
Abstract Hyaluronic acid (HA) is found in high concentrations in cartilage and synovial fluid, and is an important component of the extracellular matrixes ? exerting joint lubrication and buffering actions thanks to its viscoelastic properties. The present study examines the scientific evidence found in the current literature on the usefulness of the intraarticular injection of HA in patients with temporomandibular dysfunction. A literature search was made up until May 2008 in the following databases: PubMed / MEDLINE. Of the articles found in the literature, the present review included 18 relevant studies on the application of HA in the temporomandibular joint (TMJ). The quality, level of …
Correlative histologic and arthroscopic evaluation in rheumatoid knee joints.
1992
The correlation between arthroscopic observations and histologic changes in rheumatoid arthritis is still controversial. Synovial samples of 21 knee joints in rheumatoid arthritis patients were comparatively investigated by endoscopy and histology. Biopsies were scored by an endoscopist and subsequently dissected. Different histochemical and immunocytochemical staining techniques were used to define inflammatory activity. Arthroscopic and histological values were compared by rating scales and variance analysis. Our study indicates that synovial biopsy is of diagnostic value in rheumatoid arthritis. However, its usefulness depends on the histochemical methods used. The results revealed highl…
MINIMIZING INFLIXIMAB TOXICITY IN THE TREATMENT OF INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE
2008
Abstract Background Infliximab is a widely used biological agent for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, and has a favorable risk/benefit ratio. Aim It is useful to know that patients treated with infliximab are exposed to developing adverse events that could be reduced with a prudent and a rational clinical approach and by optimizing the treatment protocol. Methods PubMed (including Epub) was searched in October 2006 and again in March 2007. Results The high immunogenic potential of infliximab determines the antibodies that inhibit the effect of infliximab and the appearance of subsequent acute and delayed infusion reactions. Infliximab has an immunomodulatory effect, thus increas…
Patient-specific computational evaluation of stiffness distribution in ascending thoracic aortic aneurysm
2021
Quantifying local aortic stiffness properties in vivo is acknowledged as essential to assess the severity of an ascending thoracic aortic aneurysm (ATAA). Recently, the LESI (local extensional stiffness identification) methodology has been established to quantify non-invasively local stiffness properties of ATAAs using electrocardiographic-gated computed tomography (ECG-gated CT) scans. The aim of the current study was to determine the most sensitive markers of local ATAA stiffness estimation with the hypothesis that direct measures of local ATAA stiffness could better detect the high-risk patients. A cohort of 30 patients (12 BAV and 18 TAV) referred for aortic size evaluation by ECG-gated…