Effects of blood transfusion on exercise capacity in thalassemia major patients

Anemia has an important role in exercise performance. However, the direct link between rapid changes of hemoglobin and exercise performance is still unknown.To find out more on this topic, we studied 18 beta-thalassemia major patients free of relevant cardiac dysfunction (age 33.5±7.2 years,males = 10). Patients performed a maximal cardiopulmolmonary exercise test (cycloergometer, personalized ramp protocol, breath-by-breath measurements of expired gases) before and the day after blood transfusion (500 cc of red cell concentrates). After blood transfusion, hemoglobin increased from 10.5±0.8 g/dL to 12.1±1.2 (p<0.001), peak VO2 from 1408 to 1546mL/min (p<0.05), and VO2 at anaerobic threshold from 965 to 1024mL/min (p<0.05). No major changes were observed as regards heart and respiratory rates either at peak exercise or at anaerobic threshold. Similarly, no relevant changes were observed in ventilation efficiency, as evaluated by the ventilation vs. carbon dioxide production relationship, or in O2 delivery to the periphery as analyzed by the VO2 vs. workload relationship. The relationship between hemoglobin and VO2 changes showed, for each g/dL of hemoglobin increase, a VO2 increase = 82.5 mL/min and 35 mL/min, at peak exercise and at anaerobic threshold, respectively. In beta-thalassemia major patients, an acute albeit partial anemia correction by blood transfusion determinates a relevant increase of exercise performance, observed both at peak exercise and at anaerobic threshold

Relative entropy via non-sequential recursive pair substitutions

The entropy of an ergodic source is the limit of properly rescaled 1-block entropies of sources obtained applying successive non-sequential recursive pairs substitutions (see P. Grassberger 2002 ArXiv:physics/0207023 and D. Benedetto, E. Caglioti and D. Gabrielli 2006 Jour. Stat. Mech. Theo. Exp. 09 doi:10.1088/1742.-5468/2006/09/P09011). In this paper we prove that the cross entropy and the Kullback-Leibler divergence can be obtained in a similar way.Comment: 13 pages , 2 figure

Superoptimal Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient Iteration for Image Deblurring

We study the superoptimal Frobenius operators in the two-level circulant algebra. We consider two specific viewpoints: ( 1) the regularizing properties in imaging and ( 2) the computational effort in connection with the preconditioned conjugate gradient method. Some numerical experiments illustrating the effectiveness of the proposed technique are given and discussed

Studies on the hyperplasia ('regeneration') of the rat liver following partial hepatectomy. Changes in lipid peroxidation and general biochemical aspects

Using the experimental model of partial hepatectomy in the rat, we have examined the relationship between cell division and lipid peroxidation activity. In rats entrained to a regime of 12 h light/12 h dark and with a fixed 8 h feeding period in the dark phase, partial hepatectomy is followed by a rapid regeneration of liver mass with cycles of synchronized cell division at 24 h intervals. The latter phenomenon is indicated in this study by pulses of thymidine kinase activity having maxima at 24 h, 48 h and 72 h after partial hepatectomy. Microsomes prepared from regenerating livers show changes in lipid peroxidation activity (induced by NADPH/ADP/iron or by ascorbate/iron), which is significantly decreased relative to that in microsomes from sham-operated controls, again at 24 h, 48 h and 72 h after the operation. This phenomenon has been investigated with regard to possible underlying changes in the content of microsomal fatty acids, the microsomal enzymes NADPH:cytochrome c reductase and cytochrome P-450, and the physiological microsomal antioxidant alpha-tocopherol. The cycles of decreased lipid peroxidation activity are apparently due, at least in part, to changes in microsomal alpha-tocopherol content that are closely associated in time with thymidine kinase activity

Terrain modelling by kinematical GPS survey

This work presents the first results of an experiment aiming to derive a high resolution Digital Terrain Model (DTM) by kinematic GPS surveying. The accuracy of the DTM depends on both the operational GPS precision and the density of GPS samples. The operational GPS precision, measured in the field, is about 10cm. A Monte Carlo analysis is performed to study the dependence of the DTM error on the sampling procedure. The outcome of this analysis is that the accuracy of the topographic reconstruction is less than 1m even in areas with a density of samples as low as one sample per 100m², and becomes about 30cm in areas with at least one sample per 10m². The kinematic GPS technique gives a means for a fast and accurate mapping of terrain surfaces with an extension of a few km². Examples of application are the investigation of archaeological sites and the stability analysis of landslide prone areas

Promotion of proliferation and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma by LncRNA00673 based on the targeted-regulation of notch signaling pathway

we read with great interest the paper by Dr. Chen et al1, recently published in European Review for Medical and Pharmacological Sciences and titled ‘‘Promotion of proliferation and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma by LncRNA00673 based on the targeted-regulation of notch signaling pathway’’. Authors concluded that lncRNA00673 is highly expressed and may be a potential target for the treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC). Moreover, according to authors, it can promote the proliferation and metastasis of HCC by the regulation of Notch signaling pathway. We congratulate the authors for their interesting work

Probabilistic cost-effectiveness analysis of controlled ovarian stimulation with recombinant FSH plus recombinant LH vs. human menopausal gonadotropin for women undergoing IVF

Background The association of recombinant FSH plus recombinant LH in 2:1 ratio may be used not only to induce ovulation in anovulatory women with hypogonadotropic hypogonadism but also to achieve multiple follicular developments in human IVF. The aim of this analysis was to estimate the cost-effectiveness of Controlled Ovarian Stimulation (COS) with recombinant FSH (rFSH) plus recombinant LH (rLH) in comparison with highly purified human menopausal gonadotropin (HP-hMG) in the woman undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) in Italy. Methods A probabilistic decision tree was developed to simulate patients undergoing IVF, either using r-FSH + r-LH or HP-hMG to obtain COS. The model considers the National Health System (NHS) perspective and a time horizon equal to two years. Simulations were reported considering the number of retrieved oocytes (5–9, 10–15 and > 15) and transition probabilities were estimated through specific analyses carried out on the population of 848 women enrolled in the real-life. Results The model estimated that patients undertaking therapeutic protocol with r-FSH + r-LH increase the general success rate (+ 6.6% for pregnancy). The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) of r-FSH + r-LH was below the willingness to pay set at €20,000 for all the considered scenarios. Conclusions The cost-utility analysis demonstrated that the r-FSH + r-LH is a cost-effective option for the Italian National Health System (NHS)

Free boundary problems for Tumor Growth: a Viscosity solutions approach

The mathematical modeling of tumor growth leads to singular stiff pressure law limits for porous medium equations with a source term. Such asymptotic problems give rise to free boundaries, which, in the absence of active motion, are generalized Hele-Shaw flows. In this note we use viscosity solutions methods to study limits for porous medium-type equations with active motion. We prove the uniform convergence of the density under fairly general assumptions on the initial data, thus improving existing results. We also obtain some additional information/regularity about the propagating interfaces, which, in view of the discontinuities, can nucleate and, thus, change topological type. The main tool is the construction of local, smooth, radial solutions which serve as barriers for the existence and uniqueness results as well as to quantify the speed of propagation of the free boundary propagation

Quantum Kinetic Evolution of Marginal Observables

We develop a rigorous formalism for the description of the evolution of observables of quantum systems of particles in the mean-field scaling limit. The corresponding asymptotics of a solution of the initial-value problem of the dual quantum BBGKY hierarchy is constructed. Moreover, links of the evolution of marginal observables and the evolution of quantum states described in terms of a one-particle marginal density operator are established. Such approach gives the alternative description of the kinetic evolution of quantum many-particle systems to generally accepted approach on basis of kinetic equations.Comment: 18 page