Adherence to growth hormone (GH) therapy in na\uefve to treatment GH-deficient children: data of the Italian Cohort from the Easypod Connect Observational Study (ECOS)

Background: With the use of non-objective measurement, adherence to growth hormone (GH) therapy has been reported suboptimal in a large proportion of patients, and poor adherence has been shown to affect short-term growth response in patients receiving GH treatment. Objective: The Easypod\u2122 electronic device allows objective measurement of adherence. In this study, we report 3-year prospective adherence data of the Italian cohort of na\uefve GH deficient (GHD) children extrapolated from the Easypod Connect Observational Study (ECOS) database. Patients and methods: Seventy-three GHD children na\uefve to GH treatment were included in the analysis. 22 Italian centers participated in the study. Results: Mean adherence rate was consistently above 85% across the 3-year observation period. Particularly, mean adherence was 88.5%, 86.6%, and 85.7% after 1, 2 and 3\ua0years, respectively. Mean (\ub1 SD) height-SDS increase after the first year was 0.41 (\ub1 0.38). Conclusions: The majority of na\uefve GHD children starting GH treatment with Easypod maintained an adherence rate > 85% up to 3\ua0years. Easypod is a useful tool to follow-up patients\u2019 adherence allowing timely intervention to improve optimal treatment for these patients

Adherence to growth hormone (GH) therapy in naïve to treatment GH-deficient children: data of the Italian Cohort from the Easypod Connect Observational Study (ECOS)

Background: With the use of non-objective measurement, adherence to growth hormone (GH) therapy has been reported suboptimal in a large proportion of patients, and poor adherence has been shown to affect short-term growth response in patients receiving GH treatment. Objective: The Easypod™ electronic device allows objective measurement of adherence. In this study, we report 3-year prospective adherence data of the Italian cohort of naïve GH deficient (GHD) children extrapolated from the Easypod Connect Observational Study (ECOS) database. Patients and methods: Seventy-three GHD children naïve to GH treatment were included in the analysis. 22 Italian centers participated in the study. Results: Mean adherence rate was consistently above 85% across the 3-year observation period. Particularly, mean adherence was 88.5%, 86.6%, and 85.7% after 1, 2 and 3 years, respectively. Mean (± SD) height-SDS increase after the first year was 0.41 (± 0.38). Conclusions: The majority of naïve GHD children starting GH treatment with Easypod maintained an adherence rate > 85% up to 3 years. Easypod is a useful tool to follow-up patients’ adherence allowing timely intervention to improve optimal treatment for these patients

Anemia status, hemoglobin concentration and outcome after acute stroke: a cohort study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In the setting of an acute stroke, anemia has the potential to worsen brain ischemia, however, the relationship between the entire range of hemoglobin to long-term outcome is not well understood.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We examined the association between World Health Organization-defined admission anemia status (hemoglobin<13 in males, <12 g/dl in women) and hemoglobin concentration and 1-year outcome among 859 consecutive patients with acute stroke (ischemic or intracerebral hemorrhage).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The mean baseline hemoglobin concentration was 13.8 ± 1.7 g/dl (range 8.1 - 18.7). WHO-defined anemia was present in 19% of patients among both women and men. After adjustment for differences in baseline characteristics, patients with admission anemia had an adjusted OR for all-cause death at 1-month of 1.90 (95% CI, 1.05 to 3.43) and at 1-year of 1.72 (95% CI, 1.00 to 2.93) and for the combined end-point of disability, nursing facility care or death of 2.09 (95% CI, 1.13 to 3.84) and 1.83 (95% CI, 1.02 to 3.27) respectively. The relationship between hemoglobin quartiles and all-cause death revealed a non-linear association with increased risk at extremes of both low and high concentrations. In logistic regression models developed to estimate the linear and quadratic relation between hemoglobin and outcomes of interest, each unit increment in hemoglobin squared was associated with increased adjusted odds of all-cause death [at 1-month 1.06 (1.01 to 1.12; p = 0.03); at 1-year 1.09 (1.04 to 1.15; p < 0.01)], confirming that extremes of both low and high levels of hemoglobin were associated with increased mortality.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>WHO-defined anemia was common in both men and women among patients with acute stroke and predicted poor outcome. Moreover, the association between admission hemoglobin and mortality was not linear; risk for death increased at both extremes of hemoglobin.</p

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

Plasticity of the Muscle Stem Cell Microenvironment

Satellite cells (SCs) are adult muscle stem cells capable of repairing damaged and creating new muscle tissue throughout life. Their functionality is tightly controlled by a microenvironment composed of a wide variety of factors, such as numerous secreted molecules and different cell types, including blood vessels, oxygen, hormones, motor neurons, immune cells, cytokines, fibroblasts, growth factors, myofibers, myofiber metabolism, the extracellular matrix and tissue stiffness. This complex niche controls SC biology-quiescence, activation, proliferation, differentiation or renewal and return to quiescence. In this review, we attempt to give a brief overview of the most important players in the niche and their mutual interaction with SCs. We address the importance of the niche to SC behavior under physiological and pathological conditions, and finally survey the significance of an artificial niche both for basic and translational research purposes

The Gaia-ESO Public Spectroscopic Survey: Motivation, implementation, GIRAFFE data processing, analysis, and final data products

The Gaia-ESO Public Spectroscopic Survey is an ambitious project designed to obtain astrophysical parameters and elemental abundances for 100,000 stars, including large representative samples of the stellar populations in the Galaxy, and a well-defined sample of 60 (plus 20 archive) open clusters. We provide internally consistent results calibrated on benchmark stars and star clusters, extending across a very wide range of abundances and ages. This provides a legacy data set of intrinsic value, and equally a large wide-ranging dataset that is of value for homogenisation of other and future stellar surveys and Gaia's astrophysical parameters. This article provides an overview of the survey methodology, the scientific aims, and the implementation, including a description of the data processing for the GIRAFFE spectra. A companion paper (arXiv:2206.02901) introduces the survey results. Gaia-ESO aspires to quantify both random and systematic contributions to measurement uncertainties. Thus all available spectroscopic analysis techniques are utilised, each spectrum being analysed by up to several different analysis pipelines, with considerable effort being made to homogenise and calibrate the resulting parameters. We describe here the sequence of activities up to delivery of processed data products to the ESO Science Archive Facility for open use. The Gaia-ESO Survey obtained 202,000 spectra of 115,000 stars using 340 allocated VLT nights between December 2011 and January 2018 from GIRAFFE and UVES. The full consistently reduced final data set of spectra was released through the ESO Science Archive Facility in late 2020, with the full astrophysical parameters sets following in 2022