125 research outputs found
4216 Application of artificial neural networks for image analysis of organ culture preserved donor corneas: A pilot study
Gastrointestinal (GI) cancers account for 1.5 million deaths worldwide. Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection (ESD) is an advanced therapeutic endoscopy technique with superior clinical outcome due to the minimally invasive and en bloc removal of tumours. In the western world, ESD is seldom carried out, due to its complex and challenging nature. Various surgical systems are being developed to make this therapy accessible, however, these solutions have shown limited operational workspace, dexterity, or low force exertion capabilities. The current paper shows the ESD CYCLOPS system, a bimanual surgical robotic attachment that can be mounted at the end of any flexible endoscope. The system is able to achieve forces of up to 46N, and showed a mean error of 0.217mm during an elliptical tracing task. The workspace and instrument dexterity is shown by pre-clinical ex vivo trials, in which ESD is successfully performed by a GI surgeon. The system is currently undergoing pre-clinical in vivo validation
Supplementary data for the article: Mihailovic, J.; Inic-Kanada, A.; Smiljanic, K.; Stein, E.; Barisani-Asenbauer, T.; Cirkovic Velickovic, T. Lysine Acetylation of Major Chlamydia Trachomatis Antigens. EuPA Open Proteomics 2016, 10, 63â69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euprot.2016.01.007
Supplementary material for: [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euprot.2016.01.007]Related to published version: [http://cherry.chem.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/295
A Meta-Analysis of Genome-Wide Association Scans Identifies IL18RAP, PTPN2, TAGAP, and PUS10 As Shared Risk Loci for Crohn's Disease and Celiac Disease
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
Distress, depression and coping in HLA-B27-associated anterior uveitis with focus on gender differences
Background/aims To evaluate depression, coping with
disease and stress, and the subjective impression of
distress and/or life events as triggers for recurrences in
HLA-B27-associated anterior uveitis (B27-AU), with
attention to gender-specific characteristics.
Methods 171 patients with a history of B27-AU
responded to a postal survey performed between
January 2006 and April 2008 using standardised
psychological questionnaires: Beck Depression Inventory,
Freiburg Questionnaire on Coping with Illness, and Stress
Coping Inventory.
Results Patients with B27-AU differed from healthy
controls showing more depressive symptoms (Beck
Depression Inventory, 31.6%), applying characteristic
disease coping as well as negative stress coping
strategies. Female B27-AU patients tended to react with
depression and male patients to use negative stress
coping strategies. 57.9% of patients believed that
psychological distress was a trigger for relapses, and
34.5% stated specific life events. Together, this group of
patients achieved higher depression scores and used
more negative disease and stress coping styles than
patients without perception of distress.
Conclusion Patients with B27-AU patients exhibited
significant psychopathology concerning depression and
disease coping. Distress and life events were
subjectively suspected to be a trigger. By imparting
knowledge to the patients on probable development of
depressive moods and the role of stress/life events as
trigger for relapses, as well as offering behaviour therapy
to optimise coping, may help patients to cope better
with B27-AU
Supplementary data for the article: Mihailovic, J.; Inic-Kanada, A.; Smiljanic, K.; Stein, E.; Barisani-Asenbauer, T.; Cirkovic Velickovic, T. Lysine Acetylation of Major Chlamydia Trachomatis Antigens. EuPA Open Proteomics 2016, 10, 63â69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euprot.2016.01.007
Supplementary material for: [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euprot.2016.01.007]Related to published version: [http://cherry.chem.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/295
Adalimumab in Patients with Active Noninfectious Uveitis
BACKGROUND:
Patients with noninfectious uveitis are at risk for long-term complications of uncontrolled
inflammation, as well as for the adverse effects of long-term glucocorticoid
therapy. We conducted a trial to assess the efficacy and safety of adalimumab as a
glucocorticoid-sparing agent for the treatment of noninfectious uveitis.
METHODS:
This multinational phase 3 trial involved adults who had active noninfectious intermediate
uveitis, posterior uveitis, or panuveitis despite having received prednisone treatment
for 2 or more weeks. Investigators and patients were unaware of the study-group
assignments. Patients were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive adalimumab
(a loading dose of 80 mg followed by a dose of 40 mg every 2 weeks) or matched
placebo. All patients received a mandatory prednisone burst followed by tapering of
prednisone over the course of 15 weeks. The primary efficacy end point was the time
to treatment failure occurring at or after week 6. Treatment failure was a multicomponent
outcome that was based on assessment of new inflammatory lesions, best
corrected visual acuity, anterior chamber cell grade, and vitreous haze grade. Nine
ranked secondary efficacy end points were assessed, and adverse events were reported.
RESULTS:
The median time to treatment failure was 24 weeks in the adalimumab group and 13
weeks in the placebo group. Among the 217 patients in the intention-to-treat population,
those receiving adalimumab were less likely than those in the placebo group to
have treatment failure (hazard ratio, 0.50; 95% confidence interval, 0.36 to 0.70;
P<0.001). Outcomes with regard to three secondary end points (change in anterior
chamber cell grade, change in vitreous haze grade, and change in best corrected visual
acuity) were significantly better in the adalimumab group than in the placebo
group. Adverse events and serious adverse events were reported more frequently
among patients who received adalimumab (1052.4 vs. 971.7 adverse events and 28.8
vs. 13.6 serious adverse events per 100 person-years).
CONCLUSIONS:
In our trial, adalimumab was found to be associated with a lower risk of uveitic flare
or visual impairment and with more adverse events and serious adverse events than
was placebo
Hepcidin Expression in Iron Overload Diseases Is Variably Modulated by Circulating Factors
Hepcidin is a regulatory hormone that plays a major role in controlling body iron homeostasis. Circulating factors (holotransferrin, cytokines, erythroid regulators) might variably contribute to hepcidin modulation in different pathological conditions. There are few studies analysing the relationship between hepcidin transcript and related protein expression profiles in humans. Our aims were: a. to measure hepcidin expression at either hepatic, serum and urinary level in three paradigmatic iron overload conditions (hemochromatosis, thalassemia and dysmetabolic iron overload syndrome) and in controls; b. to measure mRNA hepcidin expression in two different hepatic cell lines (HepG2 and Huh-7) exposed to patients and controls sera to assess whether circulating factors could influence hepcidin transcription in different pathological conditions. Our findings suggest that hepcidin assays reflect hepatic hepcidin production, but also indicate that correlation is not ideal, likely due to methodological limits and to several post-trascriptional events. In vitro study showed that THAL sera down-regulated, HFE-HH and C-NAFLD sera up-regulated hepcidin synthesis. HAMP mRNA expression in Huh-7 cells exposed to sera form C-Donors, HFE-HH and THAL reproduced, at lower level, the results observed in HepG2, suggesting the important but not critical role of HFE in hepcidin regulation
Guidance on Noncorticosteroid Systemic Immunomodulatory Therapy in Noninfectious Uveitis : Fundamentals Of Care for UveitiS (FOCUS) Initiative
Supplemental material available at www.aaojournal.org. Supported by AbbVie, Inc., and the Fundamentals of Care for Uveitis Initiative National Faculty. This manuscript was developed subsequent to an AbbVie-sponsored literature review of noninfectious, nonanterior uveitis. The meeting was conducted to understand the available literature regarding the management of patients with noninfectious, nonanterior uveitis. The program involved a total of 139 experts from 28 countries, who were selected for participation by AbbVie. However, AbbVie was not involved in the development of the manuscript. The authors maintained complete control over the content and this manuscript reflects the opinions of the authors. AbbVie selected the discussion participants and reviewed the final manuscript draft for scientific accuracy, but the authors determined the final content. All authors made substantial contributions to the article or critically revised it for important intellectual content and approved the final manuscript. AbbVie provided funding to invited participants, including honoraria for their attendance at the meetings. Travel to and from the meetings was reimbursed. No payments were made to the authors for the development of this manuscript. Dhinakaran Sambandan, PhD, and Shula Sarner, PhD, of Lucid Partners, Burleighfield House, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom, provided medical writing and editorial support to the authors in the development of this manuscript; financial support for these services was provided by AbbVie. AbbVie reviewed the manuscript, but was not involved in the methodology, data collection and analysis, or completion of this manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Guidance on noncorticosteroid systemic immunomodulatory therapy in noninfectious uveitis: fundamentals of care for uveitis (focus) initiative
Topic: An international, expert-led consensus initiative to develop systematic, evidence-based recommendations for the treatment of noninfectious uveitis in the era of biologics.
Clinical Relevance: The availability of biologic agents for the treatment of human eye disease has altered practice patterns for the management of noninfectious uveitis. Current guidelines are insufficient to assure optimal use of noncorticosteroid systemic immunomodulatory agents.
Methods: An international expert steering committee comprising 9 uveitis specialists (including both ophthalmologists and rheumatologists) identified clinical questions and, together with 6 bibliographic fellows trained in uveitis, conducted a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses protocol systematic reviewof the literature (English language studies from January 1996 through June 2016; Medline [OVID], the Central Cochrane library, EMBASE,CINAHL,SCOPUS,BIOSIS, andWeb of Science). Publications included randomized controlled trials, prospective and retrospective studies with sufficient follow-up, case series with 15 cases or more, peer-reviewed articles, and hand-searched conference abstracts from key conferences. The proposed statements were circulated
among 130 international uveitis experts for review.Atotal of 44 globally representativegroupmembersmet in late 2016 to refine these guidelines using a modified Delphi technique and assigned Oxford levels of evidence.
Results: In total, 10 questions were addressed resulting in 21 evidence-based guidance statements covering the following topics: when to start noncorticosteroid immunomodulatory therapy, including both biologic and nonbiologic agents; what data to collect before treatment; when to modify or withdraw treatment; how to select agents based on individual efficacy and safety profiles; and evidence in specific uveitic conditions. Shared decision-making, communication among providers and safety monitoring also were addressed as part of the recommendations. Pharmacoeconomic considerations were not addressed.
Conclusions: Consensus guidelines were developed based on published literature, expert opinion, and practical experience to bridge the gap between clinical needs and medical evidence to support the treatment of patients with noninfectious uveitis with noncorticosteroid immunomodulatory agents
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