Search results for "Method"
showing 10 items of 13253 documents
Tacrolimus Monotherapy Without Steroids After Liver Transplantation – A Prospective Randomized Double-Blinded Placebo-Controlled Trial
2007
Early steroid withdrawal after liver transplantation (LT) is desirable in order to reduce steroid side effects. Between February 2000 and August 2004, 110 patients after LT were included in this prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Randomization was performed before LT. In all patients, tacrolimus was used without induction therapy. All patients received methylprednisolon for 14 days, thereafter a double-blinded medication containing either placebo (n = 56) or methylprednisolon (n = 54) for 6 months, which was completely stopped thereafter. End points were patient and graft survival, acute and chronic rejection, and incidence of steroid side effects during the fi…
Mycotoxin Analysis of Human Urine by LC-MS/MS: A Comparative Extraction Study
2017
The lower mycotoxin levels detected in urine make the development of sensitive and accurate analytical methods essential. Three extraction methods, namely salting-out liquid–liquid extraction (SALLE), miniQuEChERS (quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe), and dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction (DLLME), were evaluated and compared based on analytical parameters for the quantitative LC-MS/MS measurement of 11 mycotoxins (AFB1, AFB2, AFG1, AFG2, OTA, ZEA, BEA, EN A, EN B, EN A1 and EN B1) in human urine. DLLME was selected as the most appropriate methodology, as it produced better validation results for recovery (79–113%), reproducibility (RSDs < 12%), and repeatability (RSDs…
Double inlet left ventricular main chamber, subaortic small left sided right ventricle and interrupted aortic arch type A. What operation is indicate…
1987
A case of a 23 year old female patient who suffered from the complex congenital heart lesion of a double inlet left ventricular main chamber, subaortic small left sided right ventricle and interrupted aortic arch type A is reported. With equally high blood pressures, the perfusion in the upper half of the body was maintained through the ascending aorta while the lower half and the lungs were supplied through the pulmonary artery and a patent ductus arteriosus (PDA). Angiographically, the bulbo-ventricular foramen appeared to be nonrestrictive. However, distinct signs of muscular subaortic stenosis were detected. The hemodynamic status principally allowed surgical correction when this became…
Family members’ experiences of being cared for by nurses and physicians in Norwegian intensive care units: A phenomenological hermeneutical study
2014
Summary Objectives When patients are admitted to intensive care units, families are affected. This study aimed to illuminate the meaning of being taken care of by nurses and physicians for relatives in Norwegian intensive care units. Research methodology/design Thirteen relatives of critically ill patients treated in intensive care units in southern Norway were interviewed in autumn 2013. Interview data were analysed using a phenomenological hermeneutical method inspired by the philosopher Paul Ricoeur. Results Two main themes emerged: being in a receiving role and being in a participating role. The receiving role implies experiences of informational and supportive care from nurses and phys…
Adverse effects associated with the short-term treatment of panic disorder with imipramine, alprazolam or placebo
1994
Summary Side effects play a significant role in the selection of drugs to be used in panic disorder/agoraphobia whose polyphobic symptomatology often includes a suspiciousness about taking drugs and a fear of undesired side effects which may lead to the refusal of treatment. The safety, side effects and patients' acceptance of alprazolam and imipramine versus placebo were evaluated in 1168 subjects with panic disorder/agoraphobia who had been enrolled in the second phase of the Upjohn World Wide Panic Study. Side effects that worsened over baseline to a greater extent with alprazolam than with imipramine and placebo were sedation, fatigue/weakness, memory problems, ataxia and slurred speech…
Noise estimation from averaged diffusion weighted images: Can unbiased quantitative decay parameters assist cancer evaluation?
2013
Purpose Multiexponential decay parameters are estimated from diffusion-weighted-imaging that generally have inherently low signal-to-noise ratio and non-normal noise distributions, especially at high b-values. Conventional nonlinear regression algorithms assume normally distributed noise, introducing bias into the calculated decay parameters and potentially affecting their ability to classify tumors. This study aims to accurately estimate noise of averaged diffusion-weighted-imaging, to correct the noise induced bias, and to assess the effect upon cancer classification. Methods A new adaptation of the median-absolute-deviation technique in the wavelet-domain, using a closed form approximati…
Kinematic parameters after tibial nonunion treatment using the Ilizarov method
2021
Abstract Background Analysis of the outcomes of Ilizarov treatment of tibial nonunion shows functional deficits in the lower limbs of some patients. Biomechanical gait parameters are an important measure for assessing musculoskeletal disorder treatments that aim to restore normal gait. The purpose of our study was to compare the kinematic parameters in patients with tibial nonunion treated using the Ilizarov method and those in a control group of healthy volunteers. Methods The study population consisted of 23 patients (age 54.9 ± 16.4 years) who were treated for tibial nonunion using the Ilizarov method, as well as 22 healthy adult controls (age 52.7 ± 10.6 years). Kinematic parameters wer…
Short- and long-term effects of the transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt on portal vein thrombosis in patients with cirrhosis
2011
Background and aims Portal vein thrombosis (PVT) negatively impacts the prognosis in patients with cirrhosis. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effects of transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) placement in patients with cirrhosis complicated by PVT. Methods Seventy consecutive cirrhotic patients with non-tumoural PVT treated with TIPS for portal hypertension complications from January 2003 to February 2010 in a tertiary-care centre were followed until last clinical evaluation, liver transplantation, or death. Results TIPS was successfully placed without major procedure-related complications. After TIPS, the portal venous system was completely recanalised in 57% of pati…
Noninvasive assessment of liver fibrosis in thalassaemia major patients by transient elastography (TE) - lack of interference by iron deposition.
2009
The correlation between liver stiffness, measured by transient elastography, liver fibrosis, using the histological METAVIR score, and iron overload, measured by atomic absorption spectrometry was evaluated in 56 homozygous-beta-thalassaemics. Liver stiffness increased proportionally to liver fibrosis staging (r = 0.70; P > 0.001) independently of liver iron concentration (r = 0.01; P = 0.932). The area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve for prediction of cirrhosis was 0.997 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.925-1.000) with cut-off of 13 kPa with 100% sensitivity (95% CI: 69.0-100.0) and 95% specificity (95% CI: 84.2-99.3). Transient elastography is a reliable non-invasive too…
Human voice pitch measures are robust across a variety of speech recordings: methodological and theoretical implications
2021
Fundamental frequency ( f o ), perceived as voice pitch, is the most sexually dimorphic, perceptually salient and intensively studied voice parameter in human nonverbal communication. Thousands of studies have linked human f o to biological and social speaker traits and life outcomes, from reproductive to economic. Critically, researchers have used myriad speech stimuli to measure f o and infer its functional relevance, from individual vowels to longer bouts of spontaneous speech. Here, we acoustically analysed f o in nearly 1000 affectively neutral speech utterances (vowels, words, counting, greetings, read paragraphs and free spontaneous speech) produced by the same 154 men and women, ag…