1,692 research outputs found
Changes in the severity and subtype of Guillain-Barré syndrome admitted to a specialist Neuromedical ICU over a 25 year period
We report a retrospective review of 110 patients with acute Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) admitted to a specialised intensive care unit (ICU) in a tertiary referral centre over a 25 year period, the start of which coincided with the widespread introduction of plasma exchange (PE) and intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG). The results were analysed by comparing 52 patients admitted in the first decade (1991-2000; Group 1) with 58 patients admitted between 2001-2014 (Group 2). Patients in both groups were comparable with respect to age and sex, and had a similar incidence and range of ICU complications. They received a comparable range of immunomodulatory treatments including IVIG and PE. However, the delay from presentation to referral to the tertiary ICU was longer in patients in Group 2. They also required mechanical ventilation for a longer duration, and had longer ICU and hospital stays. In Group 2, there was a higher incidence of axonal neuropathy (51%, compared to 24% in Group 1). Despite the longer delay to referral, the prevalence of axonal neuropathy and the duration of ventilation, overall mortality showed a downward trend (Group 1: 13.5%; Group 2: 5.2%). There was no late mortality in either group after step-down to neuro-rehabilitation or following discharge home or to the referring hospital. The rehabilitation outcomes were similar. This data show a shift in the pattern of referral to a tertiary referral ICU between the first and second decades following the wider availability of IVIG and PE for the treatment of GBS. The possible causes and implications of these findings are discussed
Coulomb Parameter U and Correlation Strength in LaFeAsO
First principles constrained density functional theory scheme in Wannier
functions formalism has been used to calculate Coulomb repulsion U and Hund's
exchange J parameters for iron 3d electrons in LaFeAsO. Results strongly depend
on the basis set used in calculations: when O-2p, As-4p, and Fe-3d orbitals and
corresponding bands are included, computation results in U=3-4 eV, however,
with the basis set restricted to Fe-3d orbitals and bands only, computation
gives parameters corresponding to F^0=0.8 eV, J=0.5 eV. LDA+DMFT (the Local
Density Approximation combined with the Dynamical Mean-Field Theory)
calculation with this parameters results in weakly correlated electronic
structure that is in agreement with X-ray experimental spectra
Analysis of Insulin Doses of Chinese Type 2 Diabetic Patients with Intensive Insulin Treatment
BACKGROUND: To investigate the daily insulin doses and the ratio of basal insulin to total daily insulin in Chinese type 2 diabetic patients who received basal bolus insulin therapy. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Totally 2480 patients prescribed with pre-meal bolus insulin and bedtime basal insulin were included. The mean daily insulin doses was 38.22 ± 14.92 IU/day, the mean daily insulin doses per weight was 0.58 ± 0.22 IU/kg, the mean bolus insulin dose was 0.44 ± 0.17 IU/kg and the mean basal insulin dose was 0.13 ± 0.08 IU/kg. The mean basal/total daily insulin ratio (BD/TDD) was 0.23 ± 0.08. In most patients (47.94%), the BD/TDD was between 0.20 and 0.30. Diabetic duration, BMI, HbA1c, fasting and postprandial blood glucose level were positively associated with daily insulin dose, while age was negatively associated with daily insulin dose. Diabetic duration, BMI, HbA1c, fasting blood glucose level, and using metformin were positively associated with BD/TDD ratio, while age, postprandial C peptide, postprandial blood glucose level and CRE level were negatively associated with BD/TDD ratio. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The daily insulin doses of intensive treatment in Chinese type 2 diabetic patients was 38.22 IU/day, the mean daily insulin doses per weight was 0.58 IU/kg, mean BD/TDD ratio was 0.23
A Single-Arm, Proof-Of-Concept Trial of Lopimune (Lopinavir/Ritonavir) as a Treatment for HPV-Related Pre-Invasive Cervical Disease
BACKGROUND:
Cervical cancer is the most common female malignancy in the developing nations and the third most common cancer in women globally. An effective, inexpensive and self-applied topical treatment would be an ideal solution for treatment of screen-detected, pre-invasive cervical disease in low resource settings.
METHODS:
Between 01/03/2013 and 01/08/2013, women attending Kenyatta National Hospital's Family Planning and Gynaecology Outpatients clinics were tested for HIV, HPV (Cervista®) and liquid based cervical cytology (LBC -ThinPrep®). HIV negative women diagnosed as high-risk HPV positive with high grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL) were examined by colposcopy and given a 2 week course of 1 capsule of Lopimune (CIPLA) twice daily, to be self-applied as a vaginal pessary. Colposcopy, HPV testing and LBC were repeated at 4 and 12 weeks post-start of treatment with a final punch biopsy at 3 months for histology. Primary outcome measures were acceptability of treatment with efficacy as a secondary consideration.
RESULTS:
A total of 23 women with HSIL were treated with Lopimune during which time no adverse reactions were reported. A maximum concentration of 10 ng/ml of lopinavir was detected in patient plasma 1 week after starting treatment. HPV was no longer detected in 12/23 (52.2%, 95%CI: 30.6-73.2%). Post-treatment cytology at 12 weeks on women with HSIL, showed 14/22 (63.6%, 95%CI: 40.6-82.8%) had no dysplasia and 4/22 (18.2%, 95%CI: 9.9-65.1%) were now low grade demonstrating a combined positive response in 81.8% of women of which 77.8% was confirmed by histology. These data are supported by colposcopic images, which show regression of cervical lesions.
CONCLUSIONS:
These results demonstrate the potential of Lopimune as a self-applied therapy for HPV infection and related cervical lesions. Since there were no serious adverse events or detectable post-treatment morbidity, this study indicates that further trials are clearly justified to define optimal regimes and the overall benefit of this therapy.
TRIAL REGISTRATION:
ISRCTN Registry 48776874
Biphasic synovial sarcoma in the cervical spine: Case report
Synovial sarcoma is a rare malignant neoplasm of soft tissue that typically arising near large joints of the upper and lower extremities in young adult males. Only 3% of these neoplasms have been found to arise in the head and neck region. To our knowledge, there are limited reports in the literature of this neoplasm in the cervical spine
Comparison between REBT and Visual/Kinaesthetic Dissociation in the Treatment of Panic Disorder: An Empirical Study
The aim of this study was to test the efficacy of two brief treatment methods for panic disorder: Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) and Visual/Kinaesthetic Dissociation (VKD), neither of which have been the object of scientific enquiry. The study is a two-way between-groups pre-test/post-test experimental design with baseline and follow-up measures. An innovative four-session treatment protocol was developed for each treatment method. Eighteen participants in North-East Surrey, England, who responded to media advertisements for cognitive-behavioural treatment for panic disorder and who met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders criteria for panic disorder with or without agoraphobia were randomly assigned to either REBT or VKD. Pre-test/post-test changes in panic were measured using the ACQ, PASQ, and HADS scales and a global panic rating measure. At post-test there was a statistically significant improvement on all measures for both groups, which was maintained at one-month follow-up. Taking into consideration limitations such as the small sample size and a short follow-up period, implications of this study and recommendations for future research are discussed
LHC and lepton flavour violation phenomenology of a left-right extension of the MSSM
We study the phenomenology of a supersymmetric left-right model, assuming
minimal supergravity boundary conditions. Both left-right and (B-L) symmetries
are broken at an energy scale close to, but significantly below the GUT scale.
Neutrino data is explained via a seesaw mechanism. We calculate the RGEs for
superpotential and soft parameters complete at 2-loop order. At low energies
lepton flavour violation (LFV) and small, but potentially measurable mass
splittings in the charged scalar lepton sector appear, due to the RGE running.
Different from the supersymmetric 'pure seesaw' models, both, LFV and slepton
mass splittings, occur not only in the left- but also in the right slepton
sector. Especially, ratios of LFV slepton decays, such as Br()/Br() are sensitive to the
ratio of (B-L) and left-right symmetry breaking scales. Also the model predicts
a polarization asymmetry of the outgoing positrons in the decay , A ~ [0,1], which differs from the pure seesaw 'prediction' A=1$.
Observation of any of these signals allows to distinguish this model from any
of the three standard, pure (mSugra) seesaw setups.Comment: 43 pages, 17 figure
Radiative contribution to neutrino masses and mixing in SSM
In an extension of the minimal supersymmetric standard model (popularly known
as the SSM), three right handed neutrino superfields are introduced to
solve the -problem and to accommodate the non-vanishing neutrino masses
and mixing. Neutrino masses at the tree level are generated through parity
violation and seesaw mechanism. We have analyzed the full effect of one-loop
contributions to the neutrino mass matrix. We show that the current three
flavour global neutrino data can be accommodated in the SSM, for both
the tree level and one-loop corrected analyses. We find that it is relatively
easier to accommodate the normal hierarchical mass pattern compared to the
inverted hierarchical or quasi-degenerate case, when one-loop corrections are
included.Comment: 51 pages, 14 figures (58 .eps files), expanded introduction, other
minor changes, references adde
Coulomb correlation effects in LaOFeAs: LDA+DMFT(QMC) study
Effects of Coulomb correlation on LaOFeAs electronic structure have been
investigated by LDA+DMFT(QMC) method. The calculation results show that LaOFeAs
is in the regime of intermediate correlation strength with significant part of
the spectral density moved from the Fermi energy to Hubbard bands. However the
system is not on the edge of metal insulator-transition because increase of the
Coulomb interaction parameter value from =4.0 eV to =5.0 eV did not
result in insulator state. Correlations affect different d-orbitals not in the
same way. states ( and orbitals) have higher energy
due to crystal filed splitting and are nearly half-filled. Their spectral
functions have pseudogap with Fermi energy position on the higher sub-band
slope. Lower energy set of d-orbitals ( and ) have
significantly larger occupancy values with typically metallic spectral
functions.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
The Interplay Between GUT and Flavour Symmetries in a Pati-Salam x S4 Model
Both Grand Unified symmetries and discrete flavour symmetries are appealing
ways to describe apparent structures in the gauge and flavour sectors of the
Standard Model. Both symmetries put constraints on the high energy behaviour of
the theory. This can give rise to unexpected interplay when building models
that possess both symmetries. We investigate on the possibility to combine a
Pati-Salam model with the discrete flavour symmetry that gives rise to
quark-lepton complementarity. Under appropriate assumptions at the GUT scale,
the model reproduces fermion masses and mixings both in the quark and in the
lepton sectors. We show that in particular the Higgs sector and the running
Yukawa couplings are strongly affected by the combined constraints of the Grand
Unified and family symmetries. This in turn reduces the phenomenologically
viable parameter space, with high energy mass scales confined to a small region
and some parameters in the neutrino sector slightly unnatural. In the allowed
regions, we can reproduce the quark masses and the CKM matrix. In the lepton
sector, we reproduce the charged lepton masses, including bottom-tau
unification and the Georgi-Jarlskog relation as well as the two known angles of
the PMNS matrix. The neutrino mass spectrum can present a normal or an inverse
hierarchy, and only allowing the neutrino parameters to spread into a range of
values between and , with .
Finally, our model suggests that the reactor mixing angle is close to its
current experimental bound.Comment: 62 pages, 4 figures; references added, version accepted for
publication in JHE
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