Search results for "parametric"
showing 10 items of 980 documents
Zonisamide in children and young adults with refractory epilepsy: an open label, multicenter Italian study
2009
Summary Purpose To report on the first multicenter Italian experience with zonisamide as an add-on drug for refractory generalised or partial epilepsy in children, adolescents and young adults. Methods The patients were enrolled in a prospective, add-on, open-label treatment study from eight Italian centres for children and adolescent epilepsy care. Eighty-two young patients (45 males, 37 females), aged between 3 and 34 years (mean 13.1 years), all affected by partial (47) or generalised (35) refractory epilepsy, were enrolled in the study. ZNS was added to the baseline therapy at a starting dose of 1 mg/kg/day twice daily. This dose was increased by 2 mg/kg every 1–2 weeks over a period of…
Levetiracetam during 1-year follow-up in children, adolescents, and young adults with refractory epilepsy
2004
Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of levetiracetam (LEV) in refractory crypto/symptomatic, partial or generalised epilepsy in children, adolescents and young adults. Methods: We performed a prospective open label add-on study in 99 patients (age 12 months to 32 years, mean 14 years) with partial or generalised, crypto/symtpomatic seizures. Levetiracetam was added to no more than two baseline AEDs and the efficacy was rated according to seizure type and frequency. Results: LEV was initiated at the starting dose of 10 mg/kg/day with 5-day increments up to 50 mg/kg/day, unless it was not tolerated. Concomitant therapy was generally not modified throughout the study. After a mean fol…
Diffusion-weighted MRI of the lung with hyperpolarized helium-3: A study of reproducibility
2005
Purpose To determine the reproducibility of several parameters of the ADC measurement by calculating the scan-to-scan intrasubject variability. Materials and Methods Measurements were performed using a gradient-echo sequence with a bipolar gradient for diffusion weighting (b = 3.89 sec/cm2). Five patients with pulmonary emphysema, and six healthy-lung volunteers were included in the study. Images were acquired after inspiration of 3He during a single inspiratory breath-hold. To assess the reproducibility, the measurement was performed twice (time between measurements = 20 minutes) without repositioning the subjects. Analysis was performed on the basis of region-of-interest (ROI) analysis an…
Periodontal Alteration of the Microcirculation and Hypercholesterolemia: A Possible Correlation?
2011
OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the morphological and parametric characteristics of the periodontal microcirculation in patients diagnosed as having hypercholesterolemia and high levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL). METHODS: Forty patients were recruited, 20 of whom were affected by hypercholesterolemia and 20 of whom were considered healthy. A videocapillaroscopic examination was carried out on the periodontal mucosa in the proximity of the frenulum (II, V sextant). RESULTS: The difference between the parameters of the hypercholesterolemia group and the control group was evaluated with the Mann-Whitney U-test for non-parametric ordinal data; the level of significance being P < 0.05. The videoc…
Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS): Optimal cut points for remission and response in a German sample
2017
The Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) is the most frequently used instrument to assess social anxiety disorder (SAD) in clinical research and practice. Both a self-reported (LSAS-SR) and a clinician-administered (LSAS-CA) version are available. The aim of the present study was to define optimal cut-off (OC) scores for remission and response to treatment for the LSAS in a German sample. Data of N = 311 patients with SAD were used who had completed psychotherapeutic treatment within a multicentre randomized controlled trial. Diagnosis of SAD and reduction in symptom severity according to the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th editi…
Cognitive impairment is related to oxidative stress and chemokine levels in first psychotic episodes.
2011
Abstract Introduction This study measures the levels of various markers of oxidative stress and inflammation in blood samples from first-episode psychosis (FEP) patients, and examines the association between these peripheral biomarkers and cognitive performance at 6 months after treatment. Methods Twenty-eight FEP patients and 28 healthy controls (matched by age, sex and educational level) had blood samples taken at admission for assessment of total antioxidant status, superoxide dismutase (SOD), total glutathione (GSH), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase, lipid peroxidation, nitrites and the chemokine monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1). A battery of cognitive tests was also app…
Subchronic haloperidol downregulates dopamine synthesis capacity in the brain of schizophrenic patients in vivo
2003
Udgivelsesdato: 2003-Apr The antipsychotic effect of neuroleptics cannot be attributed entirely to acute blockade of postsynaptic D(2)-like dopamine (DA) receptors, but may arise in conjunction with the delayed depolarization block of the presynaptic neurons and reduced DA synthesis capacity. Whereas the phenomenon of depolarization block is well established in animals, it is unknown if a similar phenomenon occurs in humans treated with neuroleptics. We hypothesized that haloperidol treatment should result in decreased DA synthesis capacity. We used 6-[(18)F]fluoro-L-dopa (FDOPA) and positron emission tomography (PET) in conjunction with compartmental modeling to measure the relative activi…
Left orbitofrontal and superior temporal gyrus structural changes associated to suicidal behavior in patients with schizophrenia.
2008
Suicidal attempts are relatively frequent and clinically relevant in patients with schizophrenia. Recent studies have found gray matter differences in suicidal and non-suicidal depressive patients. However, no previous neuroimaging study has investigated possible structural abnormalities associated to suicidal behaviors in patients with schizophrenia. A whole-brain magnetic resonance voxel-based morphometric examination was performed on 37 male patients meeting the DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia. Thirteen (35.14%) patients had attempted suicide. A non-parametric permutation test was computed to perform the comparability between groups. An analysis of covariance (AnCova) model was constru…
Spontaneous interleukin 2 release of bronchoalveolar lavage cells in sarcoidosis is a codeterminator of prognosis
1996
There is mounting evidence that activated interleukin 2 (IL-2)-releasing lymphocytes play a central role in the immunopathogenesis of sarcoidosis by directing inflammatory reactions and granuloma formation. In the context that a significant proportion of these cells accumulates in the lung and releases mediators, we hypothesized that different immunologically defined stages of sarcoidosis can be identified. A cohort of 89 sarcoidosis patients was allocated to four groups according to the following criteria: stage A, a low number of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) lymphocytes (20%) without IL-2 release (1 unit/ml in BAL cell culture supernatant); stage B, BAL lymphocytes20%, with IL-2 release (…
Airway remodelling assessed by sputum and high resolution computed tomography in asthma and COPD
2004
It is not known whether sputum elastase, metalloproteinase (MMP)-9 and tissue-inhibitor metalloproteinase (TIMP)-1 are related to structural changes of the airways, as assessed by high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) scan. The relationships between these markers and the magnitude of structural changes of the airways in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were assessed. Induced sputum and HRCT scan were performed in 30 asthmatics (14 mild and 16 severe) and in 12 patients with COPD. A greater extent of HRCT scan abnormalities was found in COPD than in severe and mild asthmatics. HRCT scan abnormalities correlated with the degree of airway obstruction in COPD and in …