Search results for "Tests"
showing 10 items of 3367 documents
Motion index: A new parameter to evaluate the diastole by M-Mode imaging
2009
AIM: Heart failure with normal left ventricle (LV) ejection fraction is commonly understood as diastolic heart failure because this expression implies the presence of LV diastolic dysfunction diagnosed by specific echocardiographic findings, such as slow LV relaxation and increased LV stiffness. In this work the authors propose a new parameter named Motion Index, which is measurable by M-Mode technique and it is likely linked to diastolic dysfunction. METHODS: A patient population composed by 134 subjects was enrolled. They all were in New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class II. Echocardiogram carried out in all patients allowed the authors to distinguish 2 patient arms depending…
HLA-DRB1*1301 AND *1302 protect against chronic hepatitis B
1997
Abstract Background/Aims: The outcome of acute hepatitis B infection may be influenced by host factors like the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). We have investigated MHC class I and class II antigens in patients with chronic hepatitis B compared to a healthy control population. To confirm the findings of this first study we performed a second study in a group of subjects who had spontaneously recovered from acute hepatitis B infection. Methods: Frequencies of MHC class I and class II antigens were analyzed in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection and in control subjects. MHC class I typing was done by standard microlymphocytotoxicity assays. DRB1 and DQA1 genotypes were d…
Salivary testosterone is related to both handedness and degree of linguistic lateralization in normal women.
2003
The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that individual differences in testosterone (T) are associated with different patterns of linguistic lateralization and hand preference. Twenty left-handed (LH) and 19 right-handed (RH) women filled in a handedness questionnaire and performed a consonant–vowel dichotic listening test (DL-CV). Salivary T was measured by radioimmunoassay (RIA). LH women showed significantly lower mean salivary T than RH women. T levels were negatively correlated with the absolute value of the DL laterality index. Subjects with right ear advantage (REA) were classified into strongly and weakly lateralized following Wexler et al. method (Brain Lang. 13 (1981) 13)…
Bronchial reactivity and intracellular magnesium: a possible mechanism for the bronchodilating effects of magnesium in asthma
1998
1.Increased bronchial smooth muscle contractility with consequent bronchial hyperreactivity are characteristic physiopathological events of asthma. Since magnesium intervenes in calcium transport mechanisms and intracellular phosphorylation reactions, it constitutes an important determinant of the contraction/relaxation state of bronchial smooth muscle. In the present study we investigated the relationship between bronchial reactivity, assessed by methacholine-provocation test, and magnesium concentrations both at extracellular and intracellular levels measured by spectrophotometry. Twenty-two patients with mild-to-moderate asthma and 38 non-asthmatic subjects with allergic rhinitis (24 all…
Sensitization to Horse Allergens in Italy: A Multicentre Study in Urban Atopic Subjects without Occupational Exposure.
2010
<i>Background:</i> Horses play a significant role in people’s leisure time in Italy and other countries, but few data are available on IgE-mediated sensitization to horse allergens in patients without occupational exposure. We assessed, in a multicentric survey, the prevalence of horse sensitization in atopic subjects and its clinical characteristics. <i>Methods:</i> Allergists from the whole Italian territory were required to collect the results of skin prick tests from at least 100 consecutive subjects. Those patients with a positive skin test to horse dander underwent a detailed interview concerning clinical history, pet ownership and possible exposure. <i>R…
Tower of Hanoi and working memory in adult persons with intellectual disability
2001
Persons with intellectual disability (ID) have been found to perform more poorly than their mental age would suggest in the visuo-spatial problem solving task Tower of Hanoi (TOH). Inefficient performance has been assumed to be related to inability to use sophisticated problem solving strategies because of restricted working memory capacity. In the present study, the TOH performance of adult persons with ID was found to be equal to that of fluid-intelligence-matched general children. However, persons with ID violated the rules of the TOH more often, and needed more trials to solve the TOH problems than the children did. Visuo-spatial and executive working memory tasks were significantly con…
A Comparative Study of General Intelligence in Spanish and Moroccan Samples
2012
The aim of this study is to fill a gap in intelligence research by presenting data for the average IQ in Morocco and for a comparable sample in Spain. Adult samples were administered theRaven Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM)(Raven, Court, & Raven, 2001) and scored for the total test and for the three sub-factors of gestalt continuation, verbal-analytical reasoning and visuospatial ability identified by Lynn, Allik, and Irwing (2004). The total test and the three factors have shown satisfactory reliability. Our results for the Moroccan sample show significant relationship between general intelligence factor, gestalt continuation and visuospatial ability with education level and income…
Genome-based in silico identification of new Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigens activating polyfunctional CD8+ T cells in human tuberculosis.
2011
Although CD8(+) T cells help control Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection, their M. tuberculosis Ag repertoire, in vivo frequency, and functionality in human tuberculosis (TB) remains largely undefined. We have performed genome-based bioinformatics searches to identify new M. tuberculosis epitopes presented by major HLA class I supertypes A2, A3, and B7 (covering 80% of the human population). A total of 432 M. tuberculosis peptides predicted to bind to HLA-A*0201, HLA-A*0301, and HLA-B*0702 (representing the above supertypes) were synthesized and HLA-binding affinities determined. Peptide-specific CD8(+) T cell proliferation assays (CFSE dilution) in 41 M. tuberculosis-responsive donors ide…
Validation of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey for Estimating Burnout in Dental Students.
2016
The aim of this study was to examine the validity and reliability of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS) as a tool for assessing the prevalence and level of burnout in dental students in Spanish universities. The survey was adapted from English to Spanish. A sample of 533 dental students from 15 Spanish universities and a control group of 188 medical students self-administered the survey online, using the Google Drive service. The test-retest reliability or reproducibility showed an Intraclass Correlation Coefficient of 0.95. The internal consistency of the survey was 0.922. Testing the construct validity showed two components with an eigenvalue greater than 1.5, w…
Is ‘anxiety sensitivity’ predictive of postoperative nausea and vomiting?
2019
BACKGROUND Postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) is an extremely distressing side effect for patients. Despite PONV prophylaxis guided by well established scoring systems, the incidence of PONV is still high. OBJECTIVE The aim of the current study was to investigate the predictive value of anxiety sensitivity as an additional independent risk factor for PONV in patients with an increased risk of PONV. DESIGN A noninterventional, observational study. SETTING A tertiary care university hospital. PATIENTS Patients with an increased risk of PONV (i.e. female, nonsmoking) undergoing elective surgery (general, gynaecological, urological, musculoskeletal or neurosurgical) under general anaesthe…