Peginterferon Alfa-2b or Alfa-2a with Ribavirin for Treatment of Hepatitis C Infection

Background Treatment guidelines recommend the use of peginterferon alfa-2b or peginterferon alfa-2a in combination with ribavirin for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. However, these regimens have not been adequately compared. Methods At 118 sites, patients who had HCV genotype 1 infection and who had not previously been treated were randomly assigned to undergo 48 weeks of treatment with one of three regimens: peginterferon alfa-2b at a standard dose of 1.5 μg per kilogram of body weight per week or a low dose of 1.0 μg per kilogram per week, plus ribavirin at a dose of 800 to 1400 mg per day, or peginterferon alfa-2a at a dose of 180 μg per week plus ribavirin at a dose of 1000 to 1200 mg per day. We compared the rate of sustained virologic response and the safety and adverse-event profiles between the peginterferon alfa-2b regimens and between the standard-dose peginterferon alfa- 2b regimen and the peginterferon alfa-2a regimen. Results Among 3070 patients, rates of sustained virologic response were similar among the regimens: 39.8% with standard-dose peginterferon alfa-2b, 38.0% with low-dose peginterferon alfa-2b, and 40.9% with peginterferon alfa-2a (P=0.20 for standarddose vs. low-dose peginterferon alfa-2b; P=0.57 for standard-dose peginterferon alfa-2b vs. peginterferon alfa-2a). Estimated differences in response rates were 1.8% (95% confidence interval [CI], −2.3 to 6.0) between standard-dose and low-dose peginterferon alfa-2b and −1.1% (95% CI, −5.3 to 3.0) between standard-dose peginterferon alfa-2b and peginterferon alfa-2a. Relapse rates were 23.5% (95% CI, 19.9 to 27.2) for standard-dose peginterferon alfa-2b, 20.0% (95% CI, 16.4 to 23.6) for lowdose peginterferon alfa-2b, and 31.5% (95% CI, 27.9 to 35.2) for peginterferon alfa- 2a. The safety profile was similar among the three groups; serious adverse events were observed in 8.6 to 11.7% of patients. Among the patients with undetectable HCV RNA levels at treatment weeks 4 and 12, a sustained virologic response was achieved in 86.2% and 78.7%, respectively. Conclusions In patients infected with HCV genotype 1, the rates of sustained virologic response and tolerability did not differ significantly between the two available peginterferon– ribavirin regimens or between the two doses of peginterferon alfa-2b. (ClinicalTrials. gov number, NCT00081770.

Everolimus in postmenopausal hormone-receptor-positive advanced breast cancer.

Resistance to endocrine therapy in breast cancer is associated with activation of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) intracellular signaling pathway. In early studies, the mTOR inhibitor everolimus added to endocrine therapy showed antitumor activity.Clinical Trial, Phase IIIComparative StudyJournal ArticleMulticenter StudyRandomized Controlled TrialResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tSCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Comparison between 3D laser scanning and computed tomography on the modelling of head surface

Este trabalho foi financiado pelo Concurso Anual para Projetos de Investigação, Desenvolvimento, Inovação e Criação Artística (IDI&CA) 2016 do Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa. Código de referência IPL/2016/SoftImob_ISELThe measurement of people physical parameters and proportions constitutes an importante field of science, the anthropometry, since it is related to the characterization of the human size and constitution; it allows improving the design and sizing of systems and devices to human use. To enable these measurements, different direct and indirect methodologies may be used depending on the particular aim of a specific study and on the eventual availability of data sources that can be used also for this purpose. Because of this relevance, the present work intends to assess the influence of diferente acquisition and reconstruction methods in the modelling of a 3D head surface. In order to assess the significance of the differences between acquisition and reconstruction methods a set of measurements between several anatomic references of a physical phantom were carried out. Statistical evaluation using the Friedman test for non-parametrical pared samples was considered. We found, so far, no statistically significant differences between the several methods considered for acquisition and reconstruction.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio