176 research outputs found
Abdominal angina due to recurrence of cancer of the papilla of Vater: a case report
Abdominal angina is usually caused by atherosclerotic disease, and other causes are considered uncommon. This is the first report of a case of abdominal angina secondary to neoplastic vascular stenosis caused by local recurrence of an adenocarcinoma of the papilla of Vater. CASE PRESENTATION: An 80-year-old woman of Caucasian origin presented with abdominal pain and diarrhea. She had undergone a pancreaticoduodenectomy for adenocarcinoma of the papilla of Vater four years earlier. Computed tomography revealed a mass surrounding her celiac trunk and superior mesenteric artery. Her abdominal pain responded poorly to analgesic drugs, but disappeared when oral feedings were withheld. A duplex ultrasonography of the patient's splanchnic vessels was consistent with vascular stenosis. Parenteral nutrition was started and the patient remained pain free until her death. CONCLUSION: Pain relief is an important therapeutic target in patients with cancer. In this case, abdominal pain was successfully managed only after the ischemic cause had been identified. The conventional analgesic therapy algorithm based on nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and opioids had been costly and pointless, whereas the simple withdrawal of oral feeding spared the patient of the discomfort of additional invasive procedures and allowed her to spend her remaining days in a completely pain-free state
Inclusive dielectron production in proton-proton collisions at 2.2 GeV beam energy
Data on inclusive dielectron production are presented for the reaction p+p at
2.2 GeV measured with the High Acceptance DiElectron Spectrometer (HADES). Our
results supplement data obtained earlier in this bombarding energy regime by
DLS and HADES. The comparison with the 2.09 GeV DLS data is discussed. The
reconstructed e+e- distributions are confronted with simulated pair cocktails,
revealing an excess yield at invariant masses around 0.5 GeV/c2. Inclusive
cross sections of neutral pion and eta production are obtained
Inclusive Dielectron Production in Ar+KCl Collisions at 1.76 AGeV studied with HADES
Results of the HADES measurement of inclusive dielectron production in Ar+KCl
collisions at a kinetic beam energy of 1.76 AGeV are presented. For the first
time, high mass resolution spectroscopy was performed. The invariant mass
spectrum of dielectrons is compared with predictions of UrQMD and HSD transport
codes.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures - To appear in the conference proceedings for
Quark Matter 2009, March 30 - April 4, Knoxville, Tennesse
Dilepton production in pp and CC collisions with HADES
Dilepton production has been measured with HADES, the "High Acceptance
DiElectron Spectrometer". In pp collisions at 2.2GeV kinetic beam energy,
exclusive eta production and the Dalitz decay eta -> gamma e+e- has been
reconstructed. The electromagnetic form factor is well in agreement with
existing data. In addition, an inclusive e+e- spectrum from the C+C reaction at
2AGeV is presented and compared with a thermal model.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, proceedings of the IVth International Conference
on Quarks and Nuclear Physics, Madrid, June 5th-10th, submitted to
Eur.Phys.J.
Meson and di-electron production with HADES
The HADES experiment, installed at GSI, Darmstadt, measures di-electron
production in A+A, p/pi+N and p/pi+A collisions. Here, the pi0 and eta Dalitz
decays have been reconstructed in the exclusive p+p reaction at 2.2 GeV to form
a reference cocktail for long-lived di-electron sources. In the C+C reaction at
1 and 2 GeV/u, these long-lived sources have been subtracted from the measured
inclusive e+e- yield to exhibit the signal from the early phase of the
collision. The results suggest that resonances play an important role in dense
nuclear matter.Comment: Invited plenary talk at the 10th International Workshop On Meson
Production, Properties And Interaction (MESON 2008) 6-10 Jun 2008, Cracow,
Polan
Future perspectives at SIS-100 with HADES-at-FAIR
Currently, the HADES spectrometer undergoes un upgrade program to be prepared
for measurements at the upcoming SIS-100 synchrotron at FAIR. We describe the
current status of the HADES di-electron measurements at the SIS-18 and our
future plans for SIS-100.Comment: Invited contribution presented at the XLVII International Winter
Meeting on Nuclear Physics, Bormio (Italy), Jan. 26-30, 200
Study of dielectron production in C+C collisions at 1 AGeV
The emission of e+e- pairs from C+C collisions at an incident energy of 1 GeV
per nucleon has been investigated. The measured production probabilities,
spanning from the pi0-Dalitz to the rho/omega! invariant-mass region, display a
strong excess above the cocktail of standard hadronic sources. The
bombarding-energy dependence of this excess is found to scale like pion
production, rather than like eta production. The data are in good agreement
with results obtained in the former DLS experiment.Comment: submitted to Physics Letters
The High-Acceptance Dielectron Spectrometer HADES
HADES is a versatile magnetic spectrometer aimed at studying dielectron
production in pion, proton and heavy-ion induced collisions. Its main features
include a ring imaging gas Cherenkov detector for electron-hadron
discrimination, a tracking system consisting of a set of 6 superconducting
coils producing a toroidal field and drift chambers and a multiplicity and
electron trigger array for additional electron-hadron discrimination and event
characterization. A two-stage trigger system enhances events containing
electrons. The physics program is focused on the investigation of hadron
properties in nuclei and in the hot and dense hadronic matter. The detector
system is characterized by an 85% azimuthal coverage over a polar angle
interval from 18 to 85 degree, a single electron efficiency of 50% and a vector
meson mass resolution of 2.5%. Identification of pions, kaons and protons is
achieved combining time-of-flight and energy loss measurements over a large
momentum range. This paper describes the main features and the performance of
the detector system
Biomarkers of Therapeutic Response in the IL-23 Pathway in Inflammatory Bowel Disease
OBJECTIVES: Interleukin-23 (IL-23) has emerged as a new therapeutic target for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). As biomarkers of disease state and treatment efficacy are becoming increasingly important in drug development, we sought to identify efficacy biomarkers for anti-IL-23 therapy in Crohn's disease (CD). METHODS: Candidate IL-23 biomarkers, downstream of IL-23 signaling, were identified using shotgun proteomic analysis of feces and colon lavages obtained from a short-term mouse IBD model (anti-CD40 Rag2(-/-)) treated preventively with monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to the IL-23 receptor (IL-23R). The biomarkers were then measured in an IBD T-cell transfer model treated therapeutically with a mAb to IL-23 (p19), confirming their association with IBD. To assess the clinical relevance of these markers, we assessed their concentrations in clinical serum, colon tissue, and feces from CD patients. RESULTS: We identified 57 proteins up or downregulated in diseased animals that returned to control values when the mice were treated with mAbs to IL-23R. Among those, S100A8, S100A9, regenerating protein 3β (REG), REG3γ, lipocalin 2 (LCN2), deleted in malignant tumor 1 (DMBT1), and macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) mRNA levels correlated with disease score and dose titration of mAbs to IL-23R or IL-23(p19). All biomarkers, except DMBT1, were also downregulated after therapeutic administration of mAbs to IL-23(p19) in a T-cell transfer IBD mouse model. In sera from CD patients, we confirmed a significant upregulation of S100A8/A9 (43%), MIF (138%), pancreatitis-associated protein (PAP, human homolog of REG3β/γ; 49%), LCN2 (520%), and CCL20 (1280%), compared with control samples, as well as a significant upregulation of S100A8/A9 (887%), PAP (401%), and LCN2 (783%) in human feces from CD patients compared with normal controls. CONCLUSIONS: These studies identify multiple protein biomarkers downstream of IL-23 that could be valuable tools to assess the efficacy of this new therapeutic agent.Clinical and Translational Gastroenterology (2012) 3, e10; doi:10.1038/ctg.2012.2; published online 16 February 2012
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