Search results for "clinical significance"
showing 10 items of 207 documents
Prevalence of Occult Hepatitis B Virus Infection in a Cohort of HIV-Positive Patients Resident in Sicily, Italy
2013
Occult hepatitis B virus (OBI) in HIV-infected groups is still debated, as well as the associated risk-factors and clinical significance. In this paper, we examined a total of 405 HBsAg-negative/HIV-infected patients enrolled from January 2007 to December 2009. Overall, the prevalence of OBI was 5.9% (95% confidence interval (CI95%): 3.8–8.7%); it was more frequently associated with “anti-HBc alone” serological marker (11.3%; adjusted odds ratio = 3.7, CI95%: 1.4–9.8), although it was also detected in the absence of any HBV serological marker (4.9%; CI95%: 2.3–9.1%). A low prevalence of anti-HCV-positive patients with OBI was found (3.1%; CI95%: 0.6–8.7%). HIV RNA plasma levels or other imm…
Bcl-6 mutation status provides clinically valuable information in early-stage B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia
2004
In B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL), somatic mutation of IgVH genes defines a subgroup with favorable prognosis, whereas the absence of IgVH mutations is correlated with a worse outcome. Mutations of the BCL-6 gene are also observed in a subset of B-CLL, but the clinical significance of this molecular alteration remains uncertain. We examined the distribution of IgVH and BCL-6 gene mutations in 95 well-characterized patients with Binet stage A B-CLL, and correlated them with clinical, laboratory, cytogenetic findings and disease progression. Mutations of the BCL-6 gene were observed only in cases harboring mutated IgVH. Unexpectedly, coexistence of IgVH and BCL-6 mutations was co…
Habituation and short-term repeatability of thermal testing in healthy human subjects and patients with chronic non-neuropathic pain
2008
We investigated habituation effects during thermal quantitative sensory testing (tQST) using 8 repetitive measurements for thermal detection and pain thresholds. The same measurements were repeated two days later. 39 healthy subjects and 36 patients with chronic non-neuropathic pain syndromes (migraine, tension-type headache, non-radicular back pain) were enrolled. The pain intensity was assessed using an 11-point (0-10) numerical rating scale. Measurements correlated significantly over the two days in both groups (r=0.41...0.62). Warm detection (WDT) and heat pain threshold (HPT) revealed no significant differences over these days. Cold detection (CDT) and pain thresholds (CPT) showed sign…
Significance of increased blastic-appearing cells in bone marrow following myeloablative unrelated cord blood transplantation in adult patients.
2012
An abnormal increase of nonleukemic blastic-appearing lymphocytes in bone marrow (BM) specimens has been reported after unrelated cord blood transplantation (UCBT). This study analyzed the incidence, chronology, biological features, and clinical significance of elevated numbers of these cells in a series of 165 consecutive adult patients demonstrating myeloid engraftment after myeloablative UCBT in a single institution. The patients' BM samples were routinely evaluated by cytomorphology at different time points after UCBT. When ≥5% of blastic-appearing cells were detected by cytomorphology in the BM, samples were also evaluated by multiparametric flow cytometry to characterize these cells. …
Early age of onset, brain morphological changes and non-consistent motor asymmetry in schizophrenic patients.
1999
Previous data suggest abnormalities in the consistence of motor dominance in schizophrenia (e.g. mixed-handedness, poor correlation between hand, eye and foot preferences and an increase of hand-eye crossed dominance). The aim of this work is to examine the clinical significance of hand-eye and hand-foot crossed dominance in a sample of 61 right-handed schizophrenic patients. The application of multivariate analysis revealed that 23 right-handed and non-right-eyed patients (crossed hand-eye dominant group) had a significant earlier clinical onset and smaller brain size, global and frontal area, than 38 right-handed and right-eyed schizophrenics (consistent hand-eye dominance group). These f…
Prevalence and clinical relevance of thyroid stimulating hormone receptor-blocking antibodies in autoimmune thyroid disease
2017
Summary The prevalence and clinical relevance of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) receptor (TSHR) blocking antibodies (TBAb) in patients with autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) was investigated. Serum TBAb were measured with a reporter gene bioassay using Chinese hamster ovary cells. Blocking activity was defined as percentage inhibition of luciferase expression relative to induction with bovine TSH alone (cut-off 40% inhibition). All samples were measured for TSHR stimulatory antibody (TSAb) and TSHR binding inhibiting immunoglobulins (TBII). A total of 1079 unselected, consecutive patients with AITD and 302 healthy controls were included. All unselected controls were negative for TBAb and…
Prevalence and clinical significance of incidental findings on multiparametric prostate MRI.
2019
Purpose: To assess the prevalence and clinical significance of incidental findings (IFs) detected at multiparametric prostate MRI examination. Materials and methods: Multiparametric prostate MRIs of 647 consecutive patients (mean age 67.1 ± 8.0 years) were retrospectively evaluated by two radiologists recording the presence of all extra-prostatic IFs. Findings were classified as related to or not related to genitourinary system and divided into three classes, according to their clinical significance, as follows: group 1, not significant or scarcely significant; group 2, moderately or potentially significant; and group 3, significant. Differences in distribution of IFs between patients ≤ 65 …
Benefits of nonlinear analysis indices of walking stride interval in the evaluation of neurodegenerative diseases.
2021
Indices characterising the long-range temporal structure of walking stride interval (SI) variability such as Hurst exponent (H) and fractal dimension (D) may be used in addition to indices measuring the amount of variability like the coefficient of variation (CV). We assess the added value of the former indices in a clinical neurological context. Our aim is to demonstrate that they provide a clinical significance in aging and in frequent neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease, Huntington, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Indices assessing the temporal structure of variability are mainly dependent on SI time series length and algorithms used, making quantitative comparisons…
Thromboembolic complications of COVID-19: the combined effect of a pro-coagulant pattern and an endothelial thrombo-inflammatory syndrome.
2020
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a newly emerging human infectious disease that has quickly become a worldwide threat to health, mainly causing severe acute respiratory syndrome. In addition to the widely described respiratory syndrome, COVID-19 may cause life-treating complications directly or indirectly related to this infection. Among these, thrombotic complications have emerged as an important issue in patients with COVID-19 infection, particularly in patients in intensive care units. Thrombotic complications due to COVID-19 are likely to occur due to a pro-coagulant pattern encountered in some of these patients or to a progressive endothelial thrombo-inflammatory syndrome causing…
Clinical significance of interleukin-1 genotype in smoking patients as a predictor of peri-implantitis: A case-control study
2015
Background: Interleukin-1 (IL-1) is a proinflammatory cytokine that plays an important role in the pathogenesis of periodontitis, and so it might be useful to detect high-risk cases of peri-implantitis. It has been reported that IL-1 polymorphisms and smoking habit have a synergic effect, increasing the incidence of peri-implantitis. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the relationship between IL-1 gene polymorphisms and peri-implantitis in smoking patients. Material and Methods: A case-control study was performed in 27 patients with peri-implantitis and 27 patients with healthy implants. All patients included were smokers. IL-1A-C889T, IL-1B+C3953T and IL-1RN+T2018C were identifie…