1,508 research outputs found
Potentially inappropriate medication in older participants of the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II) - Sex differences and associations with morbidity and medication use
INTRODUCTION:
Multimorbidity in advanced age and the need for drug treatment may lead to polypharmacy, while pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic changes may increase the risk of adverse drug events (ADEs).
OBJECTIVE:
The aim of this study was to determine the proportion of subjects using potentially inappropriate medication (PIM) in a cohort of older and predominantly healthy adults in relation to polypharmacy and morbidity.
METHODS:
Cross-sectional data were available from 1,382 study participants (median age 69 years, IQR 67-71, 51.3% females) of the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II). PIM was classified according to the EU(7)-PIM and German PRISCUS (representing a subset of the former) list. Polypharmacy was defined as the concomitant use of at least five drugs. A morbidity index (MI) largely based on the Charlson Index was applied to evaluate the morbidity burden.
RESULTS:
Overall, 24.1% of the participants were affected by polypharmacy. On average, men used 2 (IQR 1-4) and women 3 drugs (IQR 1-5). According to PRISCUS and EU(7)-PIM, 5.9% and 22.6% of participants received at least one PIM, while use was significantly more prevalent in females (25.5%) compared to males (19.6%) considering EU(7)-PIM (p = 0.01). In addition, morbidity in males receiving PIM according to EU(7)-PIM was higher (median MI 1, IQR 1-3) compared to males without PIM use (median MI 1, IQR 0-2, p<0.001).
CONCLUSION:
PIM use occurred more frequently in women than in men, while it was associated with higher morbidity in males. As expected, EU(7)-PIM identifies more subjects as PIM users than the PRISCUS list but further studies are needed to investigate the differential impact of both lists on ADEs and outcome.
KEY POINTS:
We found PIM use to be associated with a higher number of regular medications and with increased morbidity. Additionally, we detected a higher prevalence of PIM use in females compared to males, suggesting that women and people needing intensive drug treatment are patient groups, who are particularly affected by PIM use
Inflammatory cytokines and biofilm production sustain Staphylococcus aureus outgrowth and persistence: A pivotal interplay in the pathogenesis of Atopic Dermatitis
Individuals with Atopic dermatitis (AD) are highly susceptible to Staphylococcus aureus colonization. However, the mechanisms driving this process as well as the impact of S. aureus in AD pathogenesis are still incompletely understood. In this study, we analysed the role of biofilm in sustaining S. aureus chronic persistence and its impact on AD severity. Further we explored whether key inflammatory cytokines overexpressed in AD might provide a selective advantage to S. aureus. Results show that the strength of biofilm production by S. aureus correlated with the severity of the skin lesion, being significantly higher (P < 0.01) in patients with a more severe form of the disease as compared to those individuals with mild AD. Additionally, interleukin (IL)-β and interferon γ (IFN-γ), but not interleukin (IL)-6, induced a concentration-dependent increase of S. aureus growth. This effect was not observed with coagulase-negative staphylococci isolated from the skin of AD patients. These findings indicate that inflammatory cytokines such as IL1-β and IFN-γ, can selectively promote S. aureus outgrowth, thus subverting the composition of the healthy skin microbiome. Moreover, biofilm production by S. aureus plays a relevant role in further supporting chronic colonization and disease severity, while providing an increased tolerance to antimicrobials
Measurement of CP-violation asymmetries in D0 to Ks pi+ pi-
We report a measurement of time-integrated CP-violation asymmetries in the
resonant substructure of the three-body decay D0 to Ks pi+ pi- using CDF II
data corresponding to 6.0 invfb of integrated luminosity from Tevatron ppbar
collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV. The charm mesons used in this analysis come
from D*+(2010) to D0 pi+ and D*-(2010) to D0bar pi-, where the production
flavor of the charm meson is determined by the charge of the accompanying pion.
We apply a Dalitz-amplitude analysis for the description of the dynamic decay
structure and use two complementary approaches, namely a full Dalitz-plot fit
employing the isobar model for the contributing resonances and a
model-independent bin-by-bin comparison of the D0 and D0bar Dalitz plots. We
find no CP-violation effects and measure an asymmetry of ACP = (-0.05 +- 0.57
(stat) +- 0.54 (syst))% for the overall integrated CP-violation asymmetry,
consistent with the standard model prediction.Comment: 15 page
Observation and study of baryonic B decays: B -> D(*) p pbar, D(*) p pbar pi, and D(*) p pbar pi pi
We present a study of ten B-meson decays to a D(*), a proton-antiproton pair,
and a system of up to two pions using BaBar's data set of 455x10^6 BBbar pairs.
Four of the modes (B0bar -> D0 p anti-p, B0bar -> D*0 p anti-p, B0bar -> D+ p
anti-p pi-, B0bar -> D*+ p anti-p pi-) are studied with improved statistics
compared to previous measurements; six of the modes (B- -> D0 p anti-p pi-, B-
-> D*0 p anti-p pi-, B0bar -> D0 p anti-p pi- pi+, B0bar -> D*0 p anti-p pi-
pi+, B- -> D+ p anti-p pi- pi-, B- -> D*+ p anti-p pi- pi-) are first
observations. The branching fractions for 3- and 5-body decays are suppressed
compared to 4-body decays. Kinematic distributions for 3-body decays show
non-overlapping threshold enhancements in m(p anti-p) and m(D(*)0 p) in the
Dalitz plots. For 4-body decays, m(p pi-) mass projections show a narrow peak
with mass and full width of (1497.4 +- 3.0 +- 0.9) MeV/c2, and (47 +- 12 +- 4)
MeV/c2, respectively, where the first (second) errors are statistical
(systematic). For 5-body decays, mass projections are similar to phase space
expectations. All results are preliminary.Comment: 28 pages, 90 postscript figures, submitted to LP0
Underuse of medication for circulatory disorders among unmarried women and men in Norway?
BACKGROUND: It is well established that unmarried people have higher mortality from circulatory diseases and higher all-cause mortality than the married, and these marital status differences seem to be increasing. However, much remains to be known about the underlying mechanisms. Our objective was to examine marital status differences in the purchase of medication for circulatory diseases, and risk factors for them, which may indicate underuse of such medication by some marital status groups. METHODS: Using data from registers covering the entire Norwegian population, we analysed marital status differences in the purchase of medicine for eight circulatory disorders by people aged 50-79 in 2004-2008. These differences were compared with those in circulatory disease mortality during 2004-2007, considered as indicating probable differences in disease burden. RESULTS: The unmarried had 1.4-2.8 times higher mortality from the four types of circulatory diseases considered. However, the never-married in particular purchased less medicine for these diseases, or precursor risk factors of these diseases, primarily because of a low chance of making a first purchase. The picture was more mixed for the divorced and widowed. Both groups purchased less of some of these medicines than the married, but, especially in the case of the widowed, relatively more of other types of medicine. In contrast to the never-married, divorced and widowed people were as least as likely as the married to make a first purchase, but adherence rates thereafter, indicated by continuing purchases, were lower. CONCLUSION: The most plausible interpretation of the findings is that compared with married people, especially the never-married more often have circulatory disorders that are undiagnosed or for which they for other reasons underuse medication. Inadequate use of these potentially very efficient medicines in such a large population group is a serious public health challenge which needs further investigation. It is possible that marital status differences in use of medicines for circulatory disorders combined with an increasing importance of these medicines have contributed to the widening marital status gap in mortality observed in several countries. This also requires further investigation
Search for rare quark-annihilation decays, B --> Ds(*) Phi
We report on searches for B- --> Ds- Phi and B- --> Ds*- Phi. In the context
of the Standard Model, these decays are expected to be highly suppressed since
they proceed through annihilation of the b and u-bar quarks in the B- meson.
Our results are based on 234 million Upsilon(4S) --> B Bbar decays collected
with the BABAR detector at SLAC. We find no evidence for these decays, and we
set Bayesian 90% confidence level upper limits on the branching fractions BF(B-
--> Ds- Phi) Ds*- Phi)<1.2x10^(-5). These results
are consistent with Standard Model expectations.Comment: 8 pages, 3 postscript figues, submitted to Phys. Rev. D (Rapid
Communications
Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS
has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions
at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection
criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined.
For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a
muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the
whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4,
while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The
efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than
90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall
momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The
transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity
for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be
better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions
of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO
Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS
has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions
at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection
criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined.
For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a
muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the
whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4,
while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The
efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than
90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall
momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The
transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity
for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be
better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions
of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO
X-ray emission from the Sombrero galaxy: discrete sources
We present a study of discrete X-ray sources in and around the
bulge-dominated, massive Sa galaxy, Sombrero (M104), based on new and archival
Chandra observations with a total exposure of ~200 ks. With a detection limit
of L_X = 1E37 erg/s and a field of view covering a galactocentric radius of ~30
kpc (11.5 arcminute), 383 sources are detected. Cross-correlation with Spitler
et al.'s catalogue of Sombrero globular clusters (GCs) identified from HST/ACS
observations reveals 41 X-rays sources in GCs, presumably low-mass X-ray
binaries (LMXBs). We quantify the differential luminosity functions (LFs) for
both the detected GC and field LMXBs, whose power-low indices (~1.1 for the
GC-LF and ~1.6 for field-LF) are consistent with previous studies for
elliptical galaxies. With precise sky positions of the GCs without a detected
X-ray source, we further quantify, through a fluctuation analysis, the GC LF at
fainter luminosities down to 1E35 erg/s. The derived index rules out a
faint-end slope flatter than 1.1 at a 2 sigma significance, contrary to recent
findings in several elliptical galaxies and the bulge of M31. On the other
hand, the 2-6 keV unresolved emission places a tight constraint on the field
LF, implying a flattened index of ~1.0 below 1E37 erg/s. We also detect 101
sources in the halo of Sombrero. The presence of these sources cannot be
interpreted as galactic LMXBs whose spatial distribution empirically follows
the starlight. Their number is also higher than the expected number of cosmic
AGNs (52+/-11 [1 sigma]) whose surface density is constrained by deep X-ray
surveys. We suggest that either the cosmic X-ray background is unusually high
in the direction of Sombrero, or a distinct population of X-ray sources is
present in the halo of Sombrero.Comment: 11 figures, 5 tables, ApJ in pres
Azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles at high transverse momenta in PbPb collisions at sqrt(s[NN]) = 2.76 TeV
The azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles in PbPb collisions at
nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 2.76 TeV is measured with the CMS
detector at the LHC over an extended transverse momentum (pt) range up to
approximately 60 GeV. The data cover both the low-pt region associated with
hydrodynamic flow phenomena and the high-pt region where the anisotropies may
reflect the path-length dependence of parton energy loss in the created medium.
The anisotropy parameter (v2) of the particles is extracted by correlating
charged tracks with respect to the event-plane reconstructed by using the
energy deposited in forward-angle calorimeters. For the six bins of collision
centrality studied, spanning the range of 0-60% most-central events, the
observed v2 values are found to first increase with pt, reaching a maximum
around pt = 3 GeV, and then to gradually decrease to almost zero, with the
decline persisting up to at least pt = 40 GeV over the full centrality range
measured.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO
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