Search results for "marker"
showing 10 items of 3799 documents
EASL Clinical Practice Guidelines on non-invasive tests for evaluation of liver disease severity and prognosis – 2021 update
2021
Summary Non-invasive tests are increasingly being used to improve the diagnosis and prognostication of chronic liver diseases across aetiologies. Herein, we provide the latest update to the EASL Clinical Practice Guidelines on the use of non-invasive tests for the evaluation of liver disease severity and prognosis, focusing on the topics for which relevant evidence has been published in the last 5 years.
Lipoprotein(a) Levels in Patients With Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm
2016
Circulating markers relevant to the development of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) are currently required. Lipoprotein(a), Lp(a), is considered a candidate marker associated with the presence of AAA. The present meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the association between circulating Lp(a) levels and the presence of AAA. The PubMed-based search was conducted up to April 30, 2015, to identify the studies focusing on Lp(a) levels in patients with AAA and controls. Quantitative data synthesis was performed using a random effects model, with standardized mean difference (SMD) and 95% confidence interval (CI) as summary statistics. Overall, 9 studies were identified. After a combined analysis, patie…
Is TGF-β1 a Biomarker of Huntington’s Disease Progression?
2021
Huntington’s disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant genetic disease that can be divided into preclinical and symptomatic stages. Due to the diverse HD phenotype, there is an urgent need to identify markers that would independently assess its severity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of plasma levels of TGF-β1 in the assessment of HD severity. One hundred HD patients and 40 healthy volunteers were included in the study. All HD patients underwent neurological and cognitive function assessment. TGF-β1 levels were determined in the plasma of all patients. The correlations between TGF-β1 levels and clinical profile and HD severity were also investigated. In symptomatic patients, cog…
Estimating the Patient-Specific Relative Stiffness Between a Hepatic Lesion and the Liver Parenchyma
2017
This paper presents a novel non-invasive methodology to obtain the patient-specific relative stiffness between a hepatic lesion and the liver parenchyma in vivo. This relative stiffness can be used as a biomarker about the type of lesion. This biomarker together with the rest of pathological information can be used to plan a biopsy, an image-guide intervention or a radiation therapy. This relative stiffness is estimated by means of the finite element simulation of the breathing process, which is embedded in an optimization routine based on genetic algorithms. This routine was aimed at finding the patient-specific relative stiffness between a hepatic lesion and the liver parenchyma for the p…
Vacuolated PAS-Positive Lymphocytes on Blood Smear: An Easy Screening Tool and a Possible Biomarker for Monitoring Therapeutic Responses in Late Onse…
2018
Background: Primary aim was to investigate the diagnostic value of PAS-positive vacuolated lymphocytes on blood smear in Late Onset Pompe Disease (LOPD) patients and, secondly, to evaluate its potential utility in monitoring treatment effects.Methods: We examined blood smear of 26 LOPD patients. We evaluated 10 treated and 16 untreated LOPD patients. Among the latter group, 7 patients later initiated ERT and were tested again 6 months after start. Blood smear was also sampled from 82 controls and 19 patients with other muscle glycogenoses (MGSDs). PAS staining was used to evaluate: (1) presence of lymphocytes with glycogen-filled vacuoles, (2) quantification of vacuolated lymphocytes.Result…
Bioinformatics for Cancer Immunotherapy
2020
Our immune system plays a key role in health and disease as it is capable of responding to foreign antigens as well as acquired antigens from cancer cells. Latter are caused by somatic mutations, the so-called neoepitopes, and might be recognized by T cells if they are presented by HLA molecules on the surface of cancer cells. Personalized mutanome vaccines are a class of customized immunotherapies, which is dependent on the detection of individual cancer-specific tumor mutations and neoepitope (i.e., prediction, followed by a rational vaccine design, before on-demand production. The development of next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies and bioinformatic tools allows a large-scale an…
Treatment of advanced gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasia, are we on the way to personalised medicine?
2021
Gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasia (GEPNEN) comprises clinically as well as prognostically diverse tumour entities often diagnosed at late stage. Current classification provides a uniform terminology and a Ki67-based grading system, thereby facilitating management. Advances in the study of genomic and epigenetic landscapes have amplified knowledge of tumour biology and enhanced identification of prognostic and potentially predictive treatment subgroups. Translation of this genomic and mechanistic biology into advanced GEPNEN management is limited. ‘Targeted’ treatments such as somatostatin analogues, peptide receptor radiotherapy, tyrosine kinase inhibitors and mammalian target…
Iron Status of Vegans, Vegetarians and Pescatarians in Norway
2021
Although plant-based diets provide well-established physical and environmental health benefits, omitting meat or meat products has also been associated with a risk of being deficient in specific nutrients, such as iron. As data on the iron status among Norwegian vegans, vegetarians and pescatarians are lacking, the present study aimed to assess iron status in these groups of healthy adults. Blood markers for iron status were measured in 191 participants (18–60 years old) comprising 106 vegans, 54 vegetarians and 31 pescatarians: serum-ferritin (S-Fe), serum-iron (S-Iron) and serum-total iron binding capacity (S-TIBC). Serum-transferrin-saturation (S-TSAT) was estimated (S-Iron/S-TIBC × 100)…
Autoantibodies in Spondyloarthritis, Focusing on Anti-CD74 Antibodies
2019
Spondyloarthritis (SpA) is an inflammatory rheumatic disease with diverse clinical presentation. The diagnosis of SpA remains a big challenge in daily clinical practice because of the limitation in specific biomarkers of SpA, more biomarkers are still needed for SpA diagnosis and disease activity monitoring. In the past, SpA was considered predominantly as auto-inflammatory disease vs. autoimmune disease. However, in recent years several researches demonstrated a broad autoantibody response in SpA patients. Study also indicated that mice lack of ZAP70 in T cell develop SpA featured inflammation. These studies indicated the autoimmune features of SpA and gave rise to the potential use of aut…
Ferritin and C-reactive protein are predictive biomarkers of mortality and macrophage activation syndrome in adult onset Still's disease. Analysis of…
2020
ObjectiveTo assess the predictive role of ferritin and C-reactive protein (CRP) on occurrence of macrophage activation syndrome (MAS) and mortality in patients with adult onset Still's disease (AOSD), a rare and severe disease, included in the multicentre Gruppo Italiano di Ricerca in Reumatologia Clinica e Sperimentale (GIRRCS) cohort.MethodsThe predictive role, at the time of diagnosis, of serum levels of ferritin and CRP on occurrence of MAS and mortality, was evaluated by logistic regression analyses and receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves were built to identify patients at high risk of MAS and mortality, respectively.ResultsIn assessed 147 patients with AOSD, levels of ferri…