Search results for "case-control"
showing 10 items of 1685 documents
Manual motor speed dysfunction as a neurocognitive endophenotype in euthymic bipolar disorder patients and their healthy relatives. Evidence from a 5…
2017
Background: Few studies have examined Manual Motor Speed (MMS) in bipolar disorder (BD). The aim of this longitudinal, family study was to explore whether dysfunctional MMS represents a neurocognitive endophenotype of BD. Methods: A sample of 291 subjects, including 131 BD patients, 77 healthy first-degree relatives (BD-Rel), and 83 genetically-unrelated healthy controls (HC), was assessed with the Finger-Tapping Test (En) on three occasions over a 5-year period. Dependence of FTT on participants' age was removed by means of a lineal model of HC samples, while correcting simultaneously the time and learning effect. Differences between groups were evaluated with an ANOVA test. Results: The p…
Blood ethanol levels and adenylyl cyclase activity in lymphocytes of alcoholic patients
1999
Abstract Background: The adenylyl cyclase (AC) signal transduction pathway is a target of acute and chronic ethanol actions. This study examined whether AC activity in lymphocyte membranes of male alcoholic patients correlated with blood concentrations of ethanol. Methods: Patients ( n = 13; mean age: 40 ± 8 years) were studied on the day of admission (day 0) and 2 days later under detoxification. Moreover, 13 age-matched male healthy controls (mean age 40 ± 9 years) were included. Lymphocyte membranes were prepared by differential centrifugation whereby blood ethanol was washed out. As a measure of AC activity the formation of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) from adenosine triphospha…
Adenylyl cyclase activity is increased in younger, but decreased in older, alcoholic patients after detoxification.
2000
Acute and chronic administration of ethanol leads to alterations of the adenylyl cyclase (AC) signal transduction pathway. This study examined whether the formation of cAMP by AC in lymphocytes correlates with age in alcoholic patients and in healthy controls. Blood was drawn for preparation of lymphocyte membranes and for determination of basal, GTPgammaS-stimulated, and forskolin-stimulated AC activity from 68 actively drinking alcoholic patients (age, mean +/- SD: 45 +/- 10; range: 26-69 years) after ethanol detoxification. The patients' AC activity correlated negatively with age. In contrast, no effect of age was observed in the healthy controls (age, mean +/- SD: 42 +/- 11; range: 24-6…
Risk factors of oral candidosis: a twofold approach of study by fuzzy logic and traditional statistic.
2007
Abstract Objective To assess a panel of risk factors associated to oral candidosis (OC) onset and its chronic maintenance by means of fuzzy logic (FL) approach and statistical traditional methodology (STM); to investigate their casual relationship within a multifactorial framework. Design Case–control study. Setting One hospital-based clinic. Patients Eighty-nine patients with OC infection microbiologically diagnosed and 98 healthy subjects were consecutively recruited. Outcome measurements Anamnestic and clinical evaluations for OC, microbiological assessment (i.e. culture, CFU/mL counting and identification) were performed. The commonest predisposing factors for OC onset and its chronic s…
Early imaging predicts later cognitive impairment in primary progressive multiple sclerosis
2010
Background: Cognitive impairment in primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS) is common and correlates modestly with contemporary lesion burden and brain volume. Using a cohort/case control methodology, we explore the ability of MRI abnormalities, including those in the normal-appearing brain tissue, to predict future cognitive dysfunction in PPMS. Methods: Thirty-one patients recruited into a longitudinal study within 5 years of onset of PPMS were assessed neuropsychologically on average 5.5 years later along with 31 matched healthy controls. MRI data obtained at entry into the study (lesion metrics, brain volumes, magnetization transfer ratio histogram metrics, and magnetic resonance …
Arterial Destiffening in Previously Untreated Mild Hypertensives After 1 Year of Routine Clinical Management
2016
BACKGROUND Arterial stiffness, measured with pulse wave velocity (PWV), is now classified as a marker of target organ damage (TOD) alongside left ventricular hypertrophy and moderately increased albuminuria. Interventional studies on treated hypertensive patients have shown that PWV could be improved. Our aim was to assess changes in arterial stiffness after 1 year of routine clinical practice in never-treated hypertensive patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS We studied 356 never-treated patients with suspected hypertension. After standard clinical assessment during which presence of TOD was evaluated, hypertension diagnosis was confirmed in 231 subjects who subsequently received standard routine…
Transforming growth factor beta1 T29C gene polymorphism and hypertension: relationship with cardiovascular and renal damage.
2008
Distribution of T29C TGFβ1 gene polymorphism was analysed in 260 hypertensive and 134 normotensive subjects. Circulating TGFβ1 and procollagen type III levels, microalbuminuria, left ventricular geometry and function were evaluated in all the hypertensives subgrouped according to T29C TGFβ1 gene polymorphism. Circulating TGFβ1 by ELISA technique, procollagen type III by a specific radioimmunoassay, microalbuminuria by radioimmunoassay, left ventricular geometry and function by echocardiography were determined. All groups were comparable for gender, age and sex. Regarding T29C TGFβ1 gene polymorphism, prevalence of TC or CC genotypes was significantly (p < 0.05) higher in hypertensives th…
Blood lipids, homocysteine, stress factors, and vitamins in clinically stable multiple sclerosis patients
2009
Abstract Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients present a decrease of antioxidants and neuroprotective and immunoregulatory vitamins and an increase of total homocysteine (tHcy), cholesterol (CHL), HDL-cholesterol, and of cellular stress markers, variably associated with the different phases of the disease. We compared the blood levels of uric acid, folic acid, vitamins B12, A, and E, tHcy, CHL, HDL-cholesterol, and triglycerides in forty MS patients during a phase of clinical inactivity with those of eighty healthy controls, matched for age and sex. We found higher levels of tHcy (p = 0.032) and of HDL-cholesterol (p = 0.001) and lower levels of vitamin E (p = 0.001) and the ratio vitamin E/CHL …
Italian version of the Chicago multiscale depression inventory: translation, adaptation and testing in people with multiple sclerosis.
2004
Depression is the commonest psychiatric disturbance in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), with prevalence higher than in the general population and other chronic diseases. However, accurate assessment of depressive symptoms can be biased by somatic symptoms which are part of both MS and depression. We translated and adapted into Italian the Chicago multiscale depression inventory (CMDI) and assessed its acceptability, internal consistency and test-retest reliability in 213 MS outpatients and 213 individually matched healthy controls. The questionnaire was also tested in 32 people with major depression. Acceptability, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability were good overall. We …
Oral cancer associated with chronic mechanical irritation of the oral mucosa
2017
Background Most of the studies dealing with Chronic Mechanical Irritation (CMI) and Oral Cancer (OC) only considered prosthetic and dental variables separately, and CMI functional factors are not registered. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess OC risk in individuals with dental, prosthetic and functional CMI. Also, we examined CMI presence in relation to tumor size. Material and Methods A case-control study was carried out from 2009 to 2013. Study group were squamous cell carcinoma cases; control group was patients seeking dental treatment in the same institution. Results 153 patients were studied (Study group n=53, Control group n=100). CMI reproducibility displayed a correlation coe…