Search results for "TC"

Enormous hemangiosarcoma of the heart

1994

This report describes a 26-year-old patient with hemangiosarcoma of the heart and summarizes the clinicopathological features in previous reports of patients with cardiac angiosarcoma. The patient was admitted to our hospital because of a syncope and one episode of nocturnal dyspnea and hemoptysis. In his history he complained of progressive weakness and loss of weight over the past 2 months. Echocardiography and computed tomography of the chest showed inhomogeneous masses in the pericardial cavity completely surrounding the heart and involving the ascending aorta and the superior vena cava. Histological examination of the tissue obtained from the mass by fine needle technique revealed a po…

HCV replication in mononuclear cells stimulates anti-HCV-secreting B cells and reflects nonresponsiveness to interferon-α

1995

Recently, it was demonstrated in chronic hepatitis C that the release of IgG and IgM anti-HCV antibodies by mononuclear cells (PBMCs) correlated with inflammatory activity, HCV persistence in serum, and negative outcome from antiviral therapy. Thus, persistent antigenic stimulation of the antibody-secreting B cells has been suggested. In this study, PBMCs were derived from 13 patients with chronic hepatitis C. Nucleic acids were extracted by the guanidine-thiocyanate-method, and plus- and minus-stranded HCV-RNAs were determined using primers from the 5'-untranslated region of HCV. Simultaneously, unstimulated PBMCs were cultured for 8 days and anti-HCV antibodies were detected in the supern…

Clinical evaluation and applications of the Amplicor HBV Monitor™ test, a quantitative HBV DNA PCR assay

1998

Viral load has emerged recently as a reliable marker of disease progression and therapeutic efficacy in chronic infections, including AIDS and hepatitis C. The clinical management of type B hepatitis could also be improved by monitoring viremia levels in patients with chronic liver disease undergoing anti-viral treatment. To address this question we evaluated the performance of a newly developed, quantitative PCR assay (Amplicor HBV Monitor test, Roche Diagnostic Systems) in the assessment of viremia changes over time in a group of 45 patients with chronic active hepatitis (CAH) who received interferon treatment. Of the 45 patients, 14 were HBsAg and anti-HBeAg positive and 31 HBsAg, HBeAg …

No detection of occult HBV-DNA in patients with various rheumatic diseases treated with anti-TNF agents: a two-year prospective study.

2013

OBJECTIVES: The widespread use of tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-targeted therapies in patients with rheumatic, digestive and dermatologic diseases has been associated with reports of reactivation of HBV replication and ensuing hepatitis flares both in asymptomatic HBsAg carriers and in subjects with occult HBV infection. The aim of our work was to investigate in a two-year prospective study the potential for HBV reactivation in patients with inflammatory joint diseases undergoing anti-TNF treatment from a southern Mediterranean area. METHODS: Fifty-seven consecutive outpatients attending the Academic Unit of Rheumatology at the University of Palermo (12 with rheumatoid arthritis, 17 with pso…

Occult HBV infection and suppression of HCV replication in the early phase of combination therapy for chronic hepatitis C

2003

Occult HBV infection in subjects with chronic hepatitis C is related to more severe disease outcome. It has been suggested that it might reduce sensitivity to antiviral treatment.To assess in HBsAg negative subjects with chronic hepatitis C any effect of the presence of HBV genomes in the liver on the early kinetics of HCV-RNA under PEG-IFN plus ribavirin.Twenty-two anti-HCV and HCV-RNA positive subjects, with biopsy-proven chronic hepatitis C (M/F 15/7; 50 +/- 8.6 years, 16 genotype 1b) were given PEG-IFN alpha 2b 1.0 microg qw plus ribavirin (800 to 1,200 mg daily according to body weight) for an intended 52 week period. Early virological response was assessed over the first 4 weeks of th…

Rare NLRP12 variants associated with the NLRP12-autoinflammatory disorder phenotype: an Italian case series.

2013

Editor's Note: Relates to: ‘Familial hypercholesterolaemia is underdiagnosed and undertreated in the general population: guidance for clinicians to p…

2020

Aims The first aim was to critically evaluate the extent to which familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) is underdiagnosed and undertreated. The second aim was to provide guidance for screening and treatment of FH, in order to prevent coronary heart disease (CHD). Methods and results Of the theoretical estimated prevalence of 1/500 for heterozygous FH, <1% are diagnosed in most countries. Recently, direct screening in a Northern European general population diagnosed approximately 1/200 with heterozygous FH. All reported studies document failure to achieve recommended LDL cholesterol targets in a large proportion of individuals with FH, and up to 13-fold increased risk of CHD. Based on prevalen…

Truncating mutations in the last exon of NOTCH2 cause a rare skeletal disorder with osteoporosis.

2010

Hajdu-Cheney syndrome is a rare autosomal dominant skeletal disorder with facial anomalies, osteoporosis and acro-osteolysis. We sequenced the exomes of six unrelated individuals with this syndrome and identified heterozygous nonsense and frameshift mutations in NOTCH2 in five of them. All mutations cluster to the last coding exon of the gene, suggesting that the mutant mRNA products escape nonsense-mediated decay and that the resulting truncated NOTCH2 proteins act in a gain-of-function manner.

Worldwide experience of homozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia:retrospective cohort study

2022

[Background]: Homozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia (HoFH) is a rare inherited disorder resulting in extremely elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels and premature atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). Current guidance about its management and prognosis stems from small studies, mostly from high-income countries. The objective of this study was to assess the clinical and genetic characteristics, as well as the impact, of current practice on health outcomes of HoFH patients globally.

Inward currents in primary nociceptive neurons of the rat and pain sensations in humans elicited by infrared diode laser pulses

2002

Radiant heat is often used to study nociception in vivo. We now used infrared radiation generated by a diode laser stimulator (wavelength 980 nm) to investigate transduction mechanisms for noxious heat stimuli in acutely dissociated dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons of rats in vitro. The laser stimulator offered the unique opportunity to test whether the same stimuli also elicit pain sensations in humans. A specific heat-induced current (I(heat)) was elicited in six of 13 small DRG neurons (diameteror =30 microm) tested in the whole-cell configuration of the patch-clamp mode. Current responses in the seven heat-insensitive neurons were within the range explainable by the temperature depend…