7 research outputs found
Incidence, clinical spectrum, risk factors and impact of HIV-associated immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome in South Africa.
Immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS) is a widely recognised complication of antiretroviral therapy (ART), but there are still limited data from resource-limited settings. Our objective was to characterize the incidence, clinical spectrum, risk factors and contribution to mortality of IRIS in two urban ART clinics in South Africa
Herpes zoster as an immune restoration disease in AIDS patients during therapy including protease inhibitors
A prospective study to evaluate the incidence of herpes zoster (HZ) as an immune restoration disease in patients with AIDS during highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) was conducted in a series of 115 patients diagnosed with AIDS initiated on HAART between 1 January 2000 and 31 July 2001. Of these, a single dermatomal HZ episode occurred in 14 (12%) patients within one and 15 months of HAART (median eight months). The HZ patients were similar to the non-HZ patients in age, sex, and HIV transmission risk factor, but had a more advanced disease. Compared with the baseline values, the viral loads significantly (P lt 0.01) decreased, while the mean CD4 + T-cell counts increased by almost four-fold (P lt 0.01) in both groups at the time of the HZ episode (or equivalent in non-HZ), but remained below 400/mL in the HZ patients. HZ during HAART is an immunopathological consequence of the improvement of the host immune response, correlating with the beginning of immune restoration
Wintertime dynamics in the coastal northeastern Adriatic Sea: the NAdEx 2015 experiment
The
paper investigates the wintertime dynamics of the coastal northeastern
Adriatic Sea and is based on numerical modelling and in situ data collected
through field campaigns executed during the winter and spring of 2015. The
data were collected with a variety of instruments and platforms
(acoustic Doppler current
profilers, conductivity–temperature–depth probes, glider, profiling float)
and are accompanied by the atmosphere–ocean ALADIN/ROMS modelling system.
The research focused on the dense-water formation (DWF), thermal changes,
circulation, and water exchange between the coastal and open Adriatic.
According to both observations and modelling results, dense waters are formed
in the northeastern coastal Adriatic during cold bora outbreaks. However, the
dense water formed in this coastal region has lower densities than the dense
water formed in the open Adriatic due to lower salinities. Since the coastal
area is deeper than the open Adriatic, the observations indicate (i) balanced
inward–outward exchange at the deep connecting channels of denser waters
coming from the open Adriatic DWF site and less-dense waters coming from the
coastal region and (ii) outward flow of less-dense waters dominating in the
intermediate and surface layers. The latter phenomenon was confirmed by the
model, even if it significantly underestimates the currents and transports in
the connecting channels. The median residence time of the coastal area is
estimated to be approximately 20 days, indicating that the coastal area may
be renewed relatively quickly by the open Adriatic waters. The data that were
obtained represent a comprehensive marine dataset that can be used to
calibrate atmospheric and oceanic numerical models and point to several
interesting phenomena to be investigated in the future