Search results for "progress"
showing 10 items of 1620 documents
Nutritional predictors of cognitive impairment severity in demented elderly patients: The key role of BMI
2012
Introduction: The body mass index (BMI) is commonly used to assess nutritional status and the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) is a validated tool for assessing cognitive status in elderly people. Nutritional and cognitive aspects are closely related in dementia. Objectives: To establish whether BMI predicts cognitive decline in demented patients and whether an "alarm" BMI cut-off exists for declining MMSE scores. Subjects and methods: 82 elderly demented patients underwent clinical, bio-chemical and functional assessment. Design: Transversal study. Results: The mean BMI was 26.08±4.48 kg/m 2 and the mean MMSE 18.68±5.38. Patients with BMI>25 kg/m2 had significantly lower MMSE scores…
TELEPHONE FOLLOW-UP FOR PATIENTS WITH AMYOTROPHIC LATERAL SCLEROSIS
2007
The relentless evolution of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a severe neurodegenerative disorder of the upper and lower motoneurons, leads to an increasing level of disability. Most patients, during the course of the disease, become unable to attend the tertiary clinical care center and are thus prevented from enrolling in clinical trials or benefiting from specialized care and management. The main objective of this study was to verify whether the ALS functional rating scale (ALSFRS) could be reliably administered by telephone to patients, when unable to attend the ALS clinic, or to their caregivers. ALSFRS is a validated instrument that assesses the functional status and the disease pr…
MRI findings and genotype analysis in patients with childhood onset growth hormone deficiency--correlation with severity of hypopituitarism.
2007
Aim: To evaluate the relationship between pituitary size, PIT1 and PROP1 genotype, and the severity of childhood onset growth hormone deficiency (coGHD). Patients: Forty-four patients with coGHD (34 M; 9.7 ± 4.1 years): severe isolated (SI) GHD (n = 14); partial isolated (PI) GHD (n = 13); multiple pituitary hormone deficiencies (MPHD) (n=17). Results: Pituitary abnormalities were found in 7/14 patients with SIGHD (50%), 16/17 patients with MPHD (94.1%), and no patient with PIGHD. Mean pituitary height (PHT SDS) was significantly lower in MPHD than in SIGHD and PIGHD. Pituitary height SDS and pituitary volume (PV) SDS correlated with IGF-I SDS and stimulated GH peaks in the SIGHD and MPHD g…
Incidence of curvature progression in idiopathic scoliosis patients treated with scoliosis in-patient rehabilitation (SIR): an age- and sex-matched c…
2003
The goal of this study is to test the hypothesis that physiotherapy-based intervention can reduce incidence of progression in children with IS. Two independent patient groups matched by age and sex at diagnosis were analysed using the outcome parameter, incidence of progression (or =5 degrees ). One group was untreated and the other received scoliosis in-patient rehabilitation (SIR). Incidence of progression in groups of untreated patients ranged from 1.5-fold (71.2% vs 46.7%) to 2.9-fold (55.8% vs 19.2%) higher than in groups of patients treated with SIR, even when SIR-treated groups included patients with more severe curvatures. Statistically, the differences were highly significant. Effo…
Nocturnal blood pressure and progression to end-stage renal disease or death in nondiabetic chronic kidney disease stages 3 and 4
2010
Objective The objective was to assess the role of office and ambulatory blood pressure (BP) on the development of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in nondiabetic chronic renal failure. Design and method Seventy-nine patients [mean age 57 (standard deviation 11) years, 47 men, BMI 28 (4), office BP 151 (25)/92 (14) mmHg, estimated glomerular filtration rate 28 (14) ml/min per 1.73 m3] were included. The causes of renal disease were nephrosclerosis (n = 33), glomerulonephritis (n = 19), interstitial (n = 12) and others (n = 15). The average follow-up was 44 months (range 9-72 months). The primary outcome was a composite of death, from any cause, or the development of ESRD that require initiatio…
Liver-specific p38α deficiency causes reduced cell growth and cytokinesis failure during chronic biliary cirrhosis in mice
2012
p38α mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) may be essential in the up-regulation of proinflammatory cytokines and can be activated by transforming growth factor β, tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-1β, and oxidative stress. p38 MAPK activation results in hepatocyte growth arrest, whereas increased proliferation has been considered a hallmark of p38α-deficient cells. Our aim was to assess the role of p38α in the progression of biliary cirrhosis induced by chronic cholestasis as an experimental model of chronic inflammation associated with hepatocyte proliferation, apoptosis, oxidative stress, and fibrogenesis. Cholestasis was induced in wildtype and liver-specific p38α knockout mice by…
Local Tumor Control and Patient Outcome Using Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy for Hepatocellular Carcinoma: iRECIST as a Potential Substitute for…
2019
Objective. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether, compared with traditional criteria, the modified Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors version 1.1 for immune-based therapeutics (iRECIST) improves prediction of local tumor control and survival in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treated with stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT). Materials and Methods. Fifty-one HCC lesions (mean size, 3.1 cm) treated with SBRT in 41 patients (mean age, 67 years) were retrospectively included. Each patient underwent CT or MRI before SBRT and at least once after SBRT. Best overall response was categorized using Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors version 1.1 (RECIS…
Hepatocellular cancer response to radiofrequency tumor ablation: contrast-enhanced ultrasound
2007
Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is increasingly being used as percutaneous treatment of choice for patients with early stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). An accurate assessment of the RFA therapeutic response is of crucial importance, considering that a complete tumor ablation significantly increases patient survival, whereas residual unablated tumor calls for additional treatment. Imaging modalities play a pivotal role in accomplishing this task, but ultrasound (US) is not considered a reliable modality for the evaluation of the real extent of necrosis, even when color/power Doppler techniques are used. Recently, newer microbubble-based US contrast agents used in combination with grey-sca…
Midterm follow-up after DC-BEAD™-TACE of Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC)
2012
Abstract Aim To determine local response, its predictors and survival and complication rates after DC-Bead™-TACE in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Materials and methods DC-Beads™ are non-resorbable, polyvinyl-alcoholic hydrophilic microspheres. They release high amounts of chemotherapeutics directly into the tumour. Delivery is sustained over time, tumour feeders are embolised. We used beads from 100–300 to 500–700 μm loaded with Doxorubicin (max. 150 mg/4 ml). Fifty patients (mean age: 68.5 ± 8.8 years) with HCC were analysed. DC-Bead™-TACE was performed once or repeated in two-month intervals. Imaging scans (CT or MRI) were done one-month following each procedure. To evalua…
Incidence of new foci of hepatocellular carcinoma after radiofrequency ablation: role of multidetector CT
2012
Purpose. The authors sought to assess the incidence of new foci of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) using multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) in patients treated with radiofrequency ablation (RFA). Materials and methods. Two readers retrospectively reviewed by consensus the follow-up MDCT studies of 125 patients (88 men and 37 women; mean age 68 years) with 141 HCCs (size 1–5.2 cm; mean 2.2 cm) treated with RFA. MDCT follow-up was performed at 1 and 3 months and every 6–12 months thereafter. Reviewers assessed: (1) the presence of new HCC foci in the same liver segment or in a different segment; (2) complete or incomplete tumor ablation; (3) tumour progression. Results. A total of 113 ne…