Anticoagulant treatment in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension associated with systemic sclerosis: More shadows than lights

Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a chronic and progressive disease characterized by elevated pulmonary artery pressure and pulmonary vascular resistance leading to heart failure and premature death. Pulmonary arterial hypertension is characterized by proliferative and obstructive lesions in the distal pulmonary arteries and some descriptions include also thrombotic lesions. Despite this, in an era when multiple effective pulmonary arterial hypertension therapies are available, the role of anticoagulation in the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension remains uncertain. In particular, anticoagulant treatment in pulmonary arterial hypertension associated with connective tissue disease seems to be associated with unfavorable risk to benefit ratio due to an increased rate of bleeding from the gastrointestinal tract. However, anticoagulation may be required in conditions with increased thrombophilia like in the presence of lupus anticoagulant phenomenon or in the presence of anticardiolipin antibodies

Effect of trikatu pretreatment on the pharmacokinetics of pefloxacin administered orally in mountain Gaddi goats

The pharmacokinetics of orally administered pefloxacin were studied to evaluate the bio-enhancing effect of the herbal bio-enhancer, trikatu, in mountain Gaddi goats (n = 6). The findings of the study revealed a decreased plasma concentration (p > 0.05) of pefloxacin following trikatu administration during the absorption phase (10, 15, 20 min post pefloxacin administration). In contrast, the plasma concentrations of pefloxacin were significantly higher at 4, 6, 8 and 12 h (during the elimination phase) of the pefloxacin administration. The findings of the investigation revealed higher values for the area under the curve, the area under the first moment of the plasma drug concentration time curve, the mean residential time, the total duration of pharmacological action and bioavailability. Trikatu treatment, however, significantly reduced the elimination half life (t1/2β) and zero time intercept of the elimination phase. The apparent volume of distribution based on the total area under the plasma drug concentration curve [(Vd(area)] and the apparent volume of distribution based on the zero time plasma concentration intercept of the elimination phase [Vd(B)] were significantly higher in trikatu treated animals indicating a better penetration of the drug. Based on the MIC of 0.8 µg/ml of pefloxacin, a priming dose of 6.0 mg/kg and a maintenance dose of 2.21 mg/kg is required to be administered at 8 h intervals. For practical purposes in goats this would mean a priming dose of 6 mg/kg and a maintenance dose of 2 mg/kg given by the oral route, to be repeated at 8 h intervals

The Elgar Companion to Alfred Marshall

Since 1990, the Principles centenary year, there has been a resurgence of interest in Marshall’s work, with the publication of his correspondence, his early philosophical and historical manuscripts and his first biography. Moreover, Italian research on industrial districts has revisited the core of Marshall’s industrial economics and its relationship with his social philosophy. These new trends have invited a reassessment of Marshall’s legacy to contemporary economics and have had a profound impact on the role he is assigned in the history of economic thought. The book is the first attempt to reconsider Marshall’s work in the light of these new historical and theoretical perspectives. It places Marshall’s ideas in their historical context, highlighting their influence on the development of economic and social thought. Contributors include all leading Marshallian scholars, who provide carefully thought-out overviews and original interpretations of individual topics from different points of view

Introduction

New knowledge on Marshall's work helps us to see him in a different perspective from that of a shy marginalist, who lacked the courage to march unhesitantingly towards Walras's general equilibrium. Recent developments in evolutionary economics, neuroeconomics and industrial economics vindicate many Marshallian intuitions, derived from his early interest in psychology and biology, though at the time held back by the backwardness of analytical tools. The text maintains that the book, of which it forms the introduction, provides a revaluation of Marshall's work, a better understanding of the interconnection between its analytical and non-analytical components, usually seen as opposite to each other, and helps to place partial equilibrium analysis in a wider context, as part and parcel of Marshall's evolutionary economics