Search results for "active"
showing 10 items of 5361 documents
Acute Phase Proteins Are Baseline Predictors of Tuberculosis Treatment Failure
2021
Systemic inflammation is a characteristic feature of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB). Whether systemic inflammation is associated with treatment failure in PTB is not known. Participants, who were newly diagnosed, sputum smear and culture positive individuals with drug-sensitive PTB, were treated with standard anti-tuberculosis treatment and classified as having treatment failure or microbiological cure. The plasma levels of acute phase proteins were assessed at baseline (pre-treatment). Baseline levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), alpha-2 macroglobulin (a2M), Haptoglobin and serum amyloid P (SAP) were significantly higher in treatment failure compared to cured individuals. ROC curve analysis …
Intratympanic Dexamethasone/Hyaluronic Acid Mix as an Adjunct to Intravenous Steroid and Vasoactive Treatment in Patients With Severe Idiopathic Sudd…
2011
To evaluate differences in effectiveness (hearing recovery rates) between idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL) patients treated with intravenous therapy alone and patients treated with a combination of intravenous and intratympanic therapy.Retrospective case review.Tertiary referral hospital center.Ninety-four patients with moderate ISSNHL treated with an intravenous steroid and vasoactive regimen (duration of therapy, 9 ± 2.76 d) and 76 patients with severe ISSNHL treated with a combination regimen of intravenous and intratympanic therapy (duration of therapy, 10 ± 2.71 d) were reviewed. In the latter patients' group, a series of 3 intratympanic injections of a dexamethaso…
Microalbuminuria and early endothelial activation in essential hypertension
2006
We hypothesized that in essential hypertensive patients (EHs), plasma levels of pro-atherogenic adhesion molecules would be increased and related with urine albumin excretion (UAE). Thus, this study was aimed at evaluating biochemical markers of endothelial activation and their relationship with UAE in a group of patients with uncomplicated EH. In basal condition soluble forms of adhesion molecules intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-1 and vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM)-1, as well as 24-h UAE were assayed. One hundred patients with essential hypertension and no diabetes or ultrasonographic evidence of atherosclerosis were included in the study. Seventy normotensive healthy subjec…
Effects of acute exercise and xanthine oxidase inhibition on novel cardiovascular biomarkers.
2013
Several sports have been associated with a postexercise increase of cardiac, liver, and skeletal muscle biomarkers of injury. Exhaustive or acute physical exercise causes an increased generation of reactive oxygen species, resulting in cellular injury. Thus, exercise and training may trigger pathophysiological changes in serum concentrations of a variety of biomarkers. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the variation of novel biomarkers of stress and cardiovascular disease such as copeptin, midregional part of proadrenomedullin (MR-proADM), growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15), soluble vascular endothelial growth factor receptor, and placental growth factor along with uric acid before …
A decision tree to help determine the best timing and antiretroviral strategy in HIV-infected patients.
2011
SUMMARYOptimal antiretroviral strategies for HIV-infected patients still need to be established. To this end a decision tree including different antiretroviral strategies that could be adopted for HIV-infected patients was built. A 10-year follow-up was simulated by using transitional probabilities estimated from a large cohort using a time-homogeneous Markov model. The desired outcome was for patients to maintain a CD4 cell count of >500 cells/mm3without experiencing AIDS or death. For patients with a baseline HIV viral load ⩾5 log10copies/ml, boosted protease inhibitor-based immediate highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) allowed them to spend 12% more time with CD4 ⩾500/mm3than…
Effect of fish oil on LDL oxidation and plasma homocysteine concentrations in health.
2003
Oxidation of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and hyperhomocysteinemia are believed to play a role in therogenesis. Whether n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids increase LDL susceptibility to oxidation or influence homocysteine (Hcy) metabolism has long been a subject of controversy. In this study, we evaluated the effect of 8 weeks of dietary supplementation with 6 g/day of fish oil (FO; 3 g of n-3 fatty acids) on plasma lipoproteins, in vitro LDL peroxidation, antioxidant status, and plasma Hcy concentrations in 16 normolipidemic subjects. FO rapidly and significantly (P < .01) decreased plasma total and very low density lipoprotein triglyceride concentrations and had no effect on LDL or high-den…
Vision evaluation in people with Down's syndrome.
1994
We tested the colour vision of 72 people with Down's syndrome using the Ishihara test and an anomaloscope. We found that 13 of the subjects, 6 males and 7 females, had defective colour vision according to Pickford's classification. In monocular vision 10 eyes were protan (five simple, three extreme and two deviant), one eye was simple deuteranomalous and the remaining eyes were normal: in binocular vision four of the subjects were protan (two simple and two deviant), two subjects were deutan (one simple and one deviant) and the rest were normal. Many of our subjects had lens opacities, strabismus, nystagmus, hypermetropia, high myopia and astigmatism, confirming literature reports. The cont…
Effect of 3rd-order aberrations on human vision
2007
To investigate the effect of 3rd-order aberrations on human vision.Grupo de Ciencias de la Visión, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain.The 3rd-order aberrations coma and trefoil were induced with purpose-designed soft contact lenses, 3 inducing coma (low [0.05 microm], medium [0.13 microm], high [1.03 microm]) and 3 inducing trefoil (low [0.07 microm], medium [0.17 microm], high [0.96 microm]). Monocular high-contrast (HCVA) and low-contrast (LCVA) visual acuities and contrast sensitivity were measured in 11 subjects wearing contact lenses with a 5.0 mm artificial pupil.The reduction in HCVA and LCVA was statistically significant only for the highest coma and trefoil values (P.0001). For co…
The value of N-terminal fragment of brain natriuretic peptide and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 levels as predictors of cardiovascular outc…
2008
Aims We sought to determine the association between two major biomarkers, the inactive N-terminal fragment of brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1) and long-term cardiovascular outcomes in a cohort of subjects who had a myocardial infarction or unstable angina 3–36 months previously. Methods and results Plasma NT-proBNP and TIMP-1 were measured in a nested case control study of 250 randomly matched subject pairs enrolled in the long-term intervention with pravastatin in ischaemic disease (LIPID) and LIPID extended follow-up studies. Cases ( n = 250) were defined as those who had a cardiovascular death, non-fatal myocardial infarction or s…
Cyclosporine or infliximab as rescue therapy in severe refractory ulcerative colitis: Early and long-term data from a retrospective observational stu…
2011
Introduction: About 30-40% of patients with acute severe ulcerative colitis (UC) fail to respond to intensive intravenous (iv) corticosteroid treatment. Iv cyclosporine and infliximab are an effective rescue therapy in steroid-refractory UC patients but up to now it is still unclear which is the best therapeutic choice. Methods: We reviewed our series of severe steroid-refractory colitis admitted consecutively since 1994 comparing two historical cohort treated with iv cyclosporine (2 mg/kg) or iv infliximab (5 mg/kg). The main outcome was the colectomy rate at 3 months, 12 months and at the end of the follow-up. Results: A total of 65 patients were included: 35 in the cyclosporine group and…