Treatment of HIV-related primary central nervous system lymphoma with azt high dose, HAART, interleukin-2 and foscarnet in three patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Purpose</p> <p>Combined immunomodulatory and antiviral treatment was administered to three patients with newly diagnosed HIV-associated primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) in an attempt to improve outcomes.</p> <p>Patients and methods</p> <p>Three patients from our institution who were recently diagnosed with HIV-associated PCNSL received intravenous azidothymidine (AZT) 1.6 gr. bid for two weeks, followed by oral AZT 250 mg bid from day 15. In addition, complementary highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) with a second nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) plus one protease inhibitor (PI) and interleukin 2 (IL-2) subcutaneously 2 million units twice daily (bid) plus foscarnet 90 mg/kg bid were administered on days 1-14. One patient received anti-EpsteinBarr virus (EBV)-maintenance therapy with ganciclovir, followed by cidofovir <abbrgrp><abbr bid="B1">1</abbr></abbrgrp>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>All patients experienced progressive disease while on induction therapy, and switched early to whole-brain radiation therapy (WBRT) as second linetreatment. No grade 3 or 4 toxicities were observed. Two patients died on days 50 and 166 respectively due to progressive disease. The third patient with histologically proven lymphoproliferation and only suspected PCNSL remained alive at 53 months. He was on HAART and remained clinically and neurologically stable.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Although IL-2, HAART, high-dose AZT and foscarnet are used for other HIV-related conditions, they did not demonstrate benefit in lymphoma remission for 2 HIVassociated PCNSL patients. The third patient went into delayed remission after additional radiotherapy and was in good clinical and neurological health status over 53 months after diagnosis.</p

A comparison between three meta-modeling optimization approaches to design a tube hydroforming process

Computer aided procedures to design and optimize forming processes have become crucial research topics as the industrial interest in cost and time reduction has been increasing. A standalone numerical simulation approach could make the design too time consuming while meta-modeling techniques enables faster approximation of the investigated phenomena, reducing the simulation time. Many researchers are, nowadays, facing such research challenge by using various approaches. Response surface method (RSM) is probably the most known one, since its effectiveness was demonstrated in the past years. The effectiveness of RSM depends both on the definition of the Design of Experiments (DoE) and the accuracy of the function approximation. The number of numerical simulations can be strongly reduced if a proper optimization approach is implemented: one of the main issues about optimization techniques is related to the design necessity of performing either global or local approximation. This paper aims to test the efficacy of some meta-modeling techniques in the optimization of a T-shaped hydroforming process. In this paper three optimization approaches based on different meta-modeling techniques are implemented. In particular, classical Polynomial Regression approach (PR), Moving Least Squares approximation (MLS) and Kriging method are applied. The results showed that, thanks to the peculiarities of MLS and Kriging methods, it is possible to strongly reduce the computational effort in sheet metal forming optimization, particularly in comparison with a classical PR approach. Differences were highlighted and quantified.</jats:p

IL TRATTAMENTO RIABILITATIVO DELLA LOMBALGIA CRONICA CON BACK SCHOOL: NOSTRA ESPERIENZA

low back pain rappresenta un problema di grande rilevanza pubblica e sanitaria nei paesi occidentali. \uc8 una patologia bio-psicosociale in quanto al fenomeno biologico di base si sovrappongono elementi psicologici e sociali che contribuiscono al mantenimento del dolore cronico. La Back School nasce con lo scopo di educare i soggetti affetti da lombalgia, ad un uso corretto del rachide attraverso un programma di lavoro personalizzato, che comprende: rieducazione respiratoria e posturale, mobilizzazione, decompressione, stabilizzazione e potenziamento muscolare. L\u2019approccio cognitivo comportamentale di tale tecnica prevede che il dolore e la disabilit\ue0 non siano determinati solo da condizioni anatomiche ma anche da fattori psicologici e sociali. L\u2019obiettivo che si prefigge, \ue8 di ridurre il sintomo dolore e di rimuovere la causa che lo provoca; essa unisce i contributi della medicina, della chinesiterapia, dell\u2019ergonomia, della psicologia e dell\u2019educazione alla salute. Il nostro studio ha lo scopo di evidenziare l\u2019efficacia di un programma di esercizi secondo la Back School in associazione al Laser Co2 in lombalgia cronica

Comparison of two formulations of buprenorphine in cats administered by the oral transmucosal route.

This randomised, blinded, cross-over study investigated the ease of oral transmucosal administration of two formulations of buprenorphine using glucose as a control in 12 cats. The cats received three treatments: buprenorphine multi-dose, buprenorphine and the equivalent volume of glucose 5%. Ease of treatment administration, observation of swallowing, changes in pupil size, sedation, salivation, vomiting, behaviour and food intake were assessed. The data were analysed using MLwiN and multi-level modelling. Ease of administration of buprenorphine multi-dose was statistically different from glucose (P 0.05). Mydriasis was evident after the administration of both formulations of buprenorphine. Sedation, salivation, vomiting, behavioural changes or in-appetence were not observed after any treatment. Cats tolerated oral transmucosal administration of glucose better than buprenorphine multi-dose, while buprenorphine administration was tolerated as well as glucose

Investigating the anticancer potential of 4-phenylthiazole derived Ru(ii) and Os(ii) metalacycles

In this contribution we report the synthesis, characterization and in vitro anticancer activity of novel cyclometalated 4-phenylthiazole-derived ruthenium(ii) (2a-e) and osmium(ii) (3a-e) complexes. Formation and sufficient purity of the complexes were unambigiously confirmed by H-1-, C-13- and 2D-NMR techniques, X-ray diffractometry, HRMS and elemental analysis. The binding preferences of these cyclometalates to selected amino acids and to DNA models including G-quadruplex structures were analyzed. Additionally, their stability and behaviour in aqueous solutions was determined by UV-Vis spectroscopy. Their cellular accumulation, their ability of inducing apoptosis, as well as their interference in the cell cycle were studied in SW480 colon cancer cells. The anticancer potencies were investigated in three human cancer cell lines and revealed IC50 values in the low micromolar range, in contrast to the biologically inactive ligands