224 research outputs found
Influence of anti-epileptic drugs on hematological and biochemical parameters in patients with epilepsy
Background: Epilepsy is a chronic neurological condition which may require long-term treatment with antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). The challenge in AED management is to attain freedom from seizures, without side-effects and with good quality-of-life. However, AEDs are reported to induce potential adverse effects, which can remain unnoticed over long time. In this regard, earlier studies report inconsistent results in hematological and biochemical toxicity of AEDs. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effects of AED monotherapy and polytherapy on hematological and biochemical parameters.Methods: This was a cross-sectional, observational study carried out among patients with epilepsy (PWE) receiving AEDs. The data on baseline demographic characteristics, treatment, adverse drug reactions, hematological, and biochemical investigations were collected. Statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS version 18 and descriptive statistics such as mean and median were used to summarize the data and inferential tests like Chi-square was used to compare categorical variables between groups.Results: There were 255 PWE in mean age range of 28.68±9.29 years, with 56.54% males. A total of 78.04% had focal, 18.04% had generalized seizures and remaining 3.92% were unclassified. Majority of (55.69%) PWE received polytherapy with AEDs. Females had significantly lower levels of hemoglobin (Hb) when compared with males (p=0.000), and patients on AED polytherapy showed significant difference in low Hb (p=0.006) and high alkaline phosphatase (ALP) levels (p=0.001).Conclusions: The results of this study showed significant alterations in the levels of Hb and ALP with the use of AED polytherapy in PWE. Routine hematological and biochemical investigations may be considered during AED treatment in those patients receiving AED polytherapy
Life support systems analysis and technical trades for a lunar outpost
The NASA/JPL life support systems analysis (LISSA) software tool was used to perform life support system analysis and technology trades for a Lunar Outpost. The life support system was modeled using a chemical process simulation program on a steady-state, one-person, daily basis. Inputs to the LiSSA model include metabolic balance load data, hygiene load data, technology selection, process operational assumptions and mission parameter assumptions. A baseline set of technologies has been used against which comparisons have been made by running twenty-two cases with technology substitutions. System, subsystem, and technology weights and powers are compared for a crew of 4 and missions of 90 and 600 days. By assigning a weight value to power, equivalent system weights are compared. Several less-developed technologies show potential advantages over the baseline. Solid waste treatment technologies show weight and power disadvantages but one could have benefits associated with the reduction of hazardous wastes and very long missions. Technology development towards reducing the weight of resupplies and lighter materials of construction was recommended. It was also recommended that as technologies are funded for development, contractors should be required to generate and report data useful for quantitative technology comparisons
Natural history and clinical effect of aortic valve regurgitation after left ventricular assist device implantation
ObjectivesAortic valve regurgitation reduces left ventricular assist device mechanical efficiency. Evidence has also suggested that left ventricular assist device implantation can induce or exacerbate aortic valve regurgitation. However, this has not been compared with aortic valve regurgitation progression in a nonsurgical end-stage heart failure population. Furthermore, its clinical effect is unclear. We sought to characterize the development and progression of aortic valve regurgitation in left ventricular assist device recipients and to identify its clinical effect.MethodsA review of all consecutive patients who received an intracorporeal left ventricular assist device at Duke University Medical Center from January 2004 to January 2011 was conducted. Cases of previous or concomitant aortic valve surgery were excluded. Data from the remaining implants (n = 184) and a control group of contemporaneous nonsurgical patients with end-stage heart failure (n = 132) were analyzed. Serial transthoracic echocardiography was used to characterize aortic valve regurgitation as a function of time.ResultsLeft ventricular assist device implantation was associated with worsening aortic valve regurgitation, defined as an increase in aortic valve regurgitation grade, relative to the nonsurgical patients with end-stage heart failure (P < .0001). The recipients of continuous flow left ventricular assist devices were more likely than recipients of pulsatile left ventricular assist devices to develop worsening aortic valve regurgitation (P = .0348). Moderate or severe aortic valve regurgitation developed in 21 left ventricular assist device recipients; this was unrelated to the type of device implanted (continuous vs pulsatile; P = .754) or aortic valve regurgitation grade before left ventricular assist device implantation (P = .42). Five patients developed severe aortic valve regurgitation; all of whom underwent aortic valve procedures.ConclusionsNative aortic valve regurgitation developed and/or progressed after left ventricular assist device implantation, with this effect being more pronounced in continuous flow left ventricular assist device recipients. However, the preoperative aortic valve regurgitation grade failed to correlate with the development of substantial aortic valve regurgitation after left ventricular assist device implantation. After left ventricular assist device implantation, aortic valve regurgitation had a small, but discernible, clinical effect, with some patients developing severe aortic valve regurgitation and requiring aortic valve procedures. These data have implications for the long-term management of left ventricular assist device recipients, in particular as the durability of implantable continuous flow left ventricular assist device therapy improves
Casein kinase I δ/ɛ phosphorylates topoisomerase IIα at serine-1106 and modulates DNA cleavage activity
We previously reported that phosphorylation of topoisomerase (topo) IIα at serine-1106 (Ser-1106) regulates enzyme activity and sensitivity to topo II-targeted drugs. In this study we demonstrate that phosphorylation of Ser-1106, which is flanked by acidic amino acids, is regulated in vivo by casein kinase (CK) Iδ and/or CKIɛ, but not by CKII. The CKI inhibitors, CKI-7 and IC261, reduced Ser-1106 phosphorylation and decreased formation of etoposide-stabilized topo II–DNA cleavable complex. In contrast, the CKII inhibitor, 5,6-dichlorobenzimidazole riboside, did not affect etoposide-stabilized topo II–DNA cleavable complex formation. Since, IC261 specifically targets the Ca2+-regulated isozymes, CKIδ and CKIɛ, we examined the effect of down-regulating these enzymes on Ser-1106 phosphorylation. Down-regulation of these isozymes with targeted si-RNAs led to hypophosphorylation of the Ser-1106 containing peptide. However, si-RNA-mediated down-regulation of CKIIα and α′ did not alter Ser-1106 phosphorylation. Furthermore, reduced phosphorylation of Ser-1106, observed in HRR25 (CKIδ/ɛ homologous gene)-deleted Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells transformed with human topo IIα, was enhanced following expression of human CKIɛ. Down-regulation of CKIδ and CKIɛ also led to reduced formation of etoposide stabilized topo II–DNA cleavable complex. These results provide strong support for an essential role of CKIδ/ɛ in phosphorylating Ser-1106 in human topo IIα and in regulating enzyme function
R parity violating contribution to
In this article we consider the contribution of violating couplings to
the process at high energy lepton collider.
We show that the present upper bound on the relevant violating coulpings
obtained from low energy measurements would produce a few hundred to a thousand
top-charm events at the next linear collider. Hence, it
should be possible to observe the rare process at future lepton collider.Comment: LaTEX, 13 pages, one figure is removed. A brief discussion on
possible backgrounds is added. To appear in Phys. Rev.
Flavor changing single top quark production channels at e^+e^- colliders in the effective Lagrangian description
We perform a global analysis of the sensitivity of LEP2 and e^+e^- colliders
with a c.m. energy in the range 500 - 2000 GeV to new flavor-changing single
top quark production in the effective Lagrangian approach. The processes
considered are sensitive to new flavor-changing effective vertices such as Ztc,
htc, four-Fermi tcee contact terms as well as a right-handed Wtb coupling. We
show that e^+ e^- colliders are most sensitive to the physics responsible for
the contact tcee vertices. For example, it is found that the recent data from
the 189 GeV LEP2 run can be used to rule out any new flavor physics that can
generate these four-Fermi operators up to energy scales of \Lambda > 0.7 - 1.4
TeV, depending on the type of the four-Fermi interaction. We also show that a
corresponding limit of \Lambda > 1.3 - 2.5 and \Lambda > 17 - 27 TeV can be
reached at the future 200 GeV LEP2 run and a 1000 GeV e^+e^- collider,
respectively. We note that these limits are much stronger than the typical
limits which can be placed on flavor diagonal four-Fermi couplings. Similar
results hold for \mu^+\mu^- colliders and for tu(bar) associated production.
Finally we briefly comment on the necessity of measuring all flavor-changing
effective vertices as they can be produced by different types of heavy physics.Comment: 34 pages, plain latex, 7 figures embadded in the text using epsfig.
Added new references and discussions regarding their relevance to the paper.
Added more comments on the comparison between flavor-changing and
flavor-diagonal contact terms and on the importance of measuring the Ztc
verte
Flavor changing Z-decays from scalar interactions at a Giga-Z Linear Collider
The flavor changing decay Z -> d_I \bar{d}_J is investigated with special
emphasis on the b \bar{s} final state. Various models for flavor violation are
considered: two Higgs doublet models (2HDM's), supersymmetry (SUSY) with flavor
violation in the up and down-type squark mass matrices and SUSY with flavor
violation mediated by R-parity-violating interaction. We find that, within the
SUSY scenarios for flavor violation, the branching ratio for the decay Z -> b
\bar{s} can reach 10^{-6} for large \tan\beta values, while the typical size
for this branching ratio in the 2HDM's considered is about two orders of
magnitudes smaller at best. Thus, flavor changing SUSY signatures in radiative
Z decays such as Z -> b \bar{s} may be accessible to future ``Z factories''
such as a Giga-Z version of the TESLA design.Comment: 27 pages, 15 figures, REVTeX4. A new section added and a few minor
corrections were made in the tex
Broken R Parity Contributions to Flavor Changing Rates and CP Asymmetries in Fermion Pair Production at Leptonic Colliders
We examine the effects of the R parity odd renormalizable interactions on
flavor changing rates and CP violation asymmetries in the production of
fermion-antifermion pairs at leptonic colliders. The produced
fermions may be leptons, down-quarks or up-quarks, and the center of mass
energies may range from the Z-boson pole up to GeV. Off the Z-boson
pole, the flavor changing rates are controlled by tree level amplitudes and the
CP asymmetries by interference terms between tree and loop level amplitudes. At
the Z-boson pole, both observables involve loop amplitudes. The lepton number
violating interactions, associated with the coupling constants, \l_{ijk},
\l'_{ijk}, are only taken into account. The consideration of loop amplitudes
is restricted to the photon and Z-boson vertex corrections. We briefly review
flavor violation physics at colliders. We present numerical results using a
single, species and family independent, mass parameter, , for all the
scalar superpartners and considering simple assumptions for the family
dependence of the R parity odd coupling constants.Comment: Latex File. 23 pages. 4 postscript figures. 1 table. Revised version
with new results and several corrections in numerical result
Charged Lepton Flavour Violation from Massive Neutrinos in Z Decays
Present evidences for neutrino masses and lepton flavour mixings allow to
predict, in the Standard Model with light neutrinos, branching rates for the
decays Z --> e mu, mu tau, e tau of less than 10^{-54}, while present
experimental exclusion limits from LEP 1 are of order 10^{-5}. The GigaZ option
of the TESLA Linear Collider project will extend the sensitivity down to about
10^{-8}. We study in a systematic way some minimal extensions of the Standard
Model and show that GigaZ might well be sensitive to the rates predicted from
these scenarios.Comment: 24 pages, 4 figures, LaTeX, uses axodraw.st
Lepton flavor violating Z boson decays induced by scalar unparticle
We predict the branching ratios of the lepton flavor violating Z boson decays
Z\to e^{\pm} \mu^{\pm}, Z\to e^{\pm} \tau^{\pm} and Z\to \mu^{\pm} \tau^{\pm}
in the case that the lepton flavor violation is carried by the scalar
unparticle mediation. We observe that their BRs are strongly sensitive to the
unparticle scaling dimension and the branching ratios can reach to the values
of the order of 10^{-8}, for the heavy lepton flavor case, for the small values
of the scaling dimension.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl
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