48 research outputs found
Chapter Development of an innovative methodology to define patient-designed quality of life: a new version of a wellknown concept in healthcare
Patient quality of life (QoL) is a pivotal parameter, which is often used by clinicians to evaluate how treatments and therapies influence patientsâ functionality and emotional state, aiming to ameliorate interventions and their outcomes. Currently, the majority of questionnaires assessing the QoL are designed with the main contribution of clinicians and, therefore, include items that are cantered on the disease rather than on its multifaceted impact on peopleâs life. The failure to truly grasp the patientsâ perspective, their needs, aspirations, perceptions and emotional state, is a major drawback that sets medical care on clinical parameters alone. We aimed to bridge this gap by establishing an innovative patient-designed QoL index to provide a new, unbiased tool considering the patientsâ perception of their own well-being. Based predominantly on patientsâ contribution, we defined specific areas (physical, emotional, social, functional, economical) and the respective characterizing features, and applied a pseudo-Delphi methodology combined with customer-satisfaction techniques. For each feature, the degree of agreement and the importance were assessed on a Likert scale. A synthetic QoL index was created by weighting the importance of each item. The methodology tested led to the development of a valid patient-designed QoL index, providing a way forward that could potentially be applied to many different conditions. The areas and the features included are indeed common to all patients, irrespective of their disease. We found that the process of methodology development enhanced the patientsâ awareness of their subjective experience with the disease, and enabled them to better present their situation to the clinicians. The patient-designed QoL index provides a descriptive model that can be helpful to patients, clinicians and third parties and that can be further integrated with clinical details to obtain an overall view of the course of treatment for each patient
Hybrid polyurethane scaffolds interpenetrated with newly cross-linked gelatin for adipose tissue regeneration
Comparison of the Aptima HIV-1 Quant Dx Assay with the COBAS\uae AmpliPrep/COBAS\uae TaqMan\uae HIV-1 v2.0 Test for HIV-1 Viral Load Quantification in Plasma Samples from HIV-1-Infected Patients.
Background and aims: HIV\u20101 RNA viral load (VL) in plasma samples of HIV\u20101\u2013positive
patients is used to assess the level of viral replication, the risk of disease progression, and the
response and efficacy to antiretroviral treatment. Knowing the performance of different tests
for HIV\u20101 RNA detection is, therefore, important for clinical care. This study compared the performance
of the recently introduced Aptima HIV\u20101 Quant Dx assay (Hologic, Inc) and the standard
COBAS AmpliPrep/COBAS TaqMan HIV\u20101 v2.0 Test (CAP/CTM2) (Roche Molecular System,
Inc) for HIV\u20101 RNA quantitation.
Methods: Assay performance was assessed using 335 clinical samples, a standard HIV\u20101 low
VL panel, and 2 diluted samples from well\u2010characterized patients infected with different HIV\u20101
subtypes tested in 5 replicates over 3 days. All samples were tested on both assays to evaluate
inter\u2010assay agreement, both qualitatively and quantitively. Altogether, we evaluated assay sensitivity,
linearity, accuracy, precision, repeatability, and reproducibility.
Results: Assay agreement for qualitative results in 335 clinical samples was fair (80.6%). Correlation
of quantitative assay results (n = 164) was excellent (R2 = 0.97), with 96.3% of the results
within the 95% limit of assay agreement ( 120.42 to +0.86 log), and 98.8% within 1 log of each
other. Aptima\u2010HIV\u20101 yielded results, on average, 0.22 log higher than CAP/CTM2. Both assays
accurately quantitated the HIV\u20101 standard at low VL (R2 65 0.94), with all samples within 0.5 log
of the target.
Conclusion: Aptima\u2010HIV\u20101 assay demonstrated sensitivity, accuracy, reproducibility, and precision
for the detection and quantitation of HIV\u20101 RNA across a wide dynamic range of VLs. Its
performance, together with full automation and high throughput, suggests that Aptima\u2010HIV\u20101
could be a suitable assay for reliable monitoring of HIV\u20101 VL in patients undergoing treatment
Functionalization of PU Foams via Inorganic and Organic Coatings to Improve Cell and Tissue Interactions
In this work an innovative method to obtain hybrid bio-functional scaffolds has been developed. Polyether urethane (PU) foam scaffolds were synthetized by one-step gas foaming process. PU foams were coated with crosslinked gelatin hydrogel to promote cell adhesion and proliferation for the regeneration of soft tissues (e.g., adipose tissue). PU foams were coated with inorganic coating (i.e., CaPs) to improve the interaction with osteoblasts for bone tissue regeneration. The functionalized 3D PU porous scaffolds have been characterized investigating morphological properties by SEM and microCT, water uptake and coating stability, and compressive mechanical properties. Adipose tissue derived stem cells (ADSCs), endothelial cells (MS1), amnion mesenchymal cells (AMCs) and chorion mesenchymal cells (CMCs) isolated from human placenta were in vitro cultured on the hybrid functionalized 3D scaffolds. Mechanical properties showed elastic modulus ranging between 15.75 ± 2.14 and 22.9 ± 3.1 kPa; in vitro biological studies showed good cell adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation. In particular, compared to the results with uncoated PU, when cells where differentiated into adipocytes, Oil red O staining confirmed a higher presence of lipid droplets; in case of osteoblasts differentiation, inorganic extracellular matrix deposition was evidenced on CaPs coated PU. The obtained results suggest the important role of an adequate coating on the scaffold to stimulate a better interaction with cells, promoting the differentiation into different cells phenotypes
Design of 2D chitosan scaffolds via electrochemical structuring
Chitosan (CS) is a versatile biopolymer whose morphological and chemico-physical properties can be designed for a variety of biomedical applications. Taking advantage of its electrolytic nature, cathodic polarization allows CS deposition on electrically conductive substrates, resulting in thin porous structures with tunable morphology. Here we propose an easy method to obtain CS membranes with highly oriented micro-channels for tissue engineering applications, relying on simple control of process parameters and cathodic substrate geometry. Cathodic deposition was performed on two different aluminum grids in galvanostatic conditions at 6.25 mA cm(-2) from CS solution [1g L(-1)] in acetic acid (pH 3.5). Self-standing thin scaffolds were cross linked either with genipin or epichlorohydrin, weighted, and observed by optical and electron microscopy. Swelling properties at pH 5 and pH 7.4 have been also investigated and tensile tests performed on swollen samples at room temperature. Finally, direct and indirect assays have been performed to evaluate the cytotoxicity at 24 and 72 h. Thin scaffolds with two different oriented porosities (1000 m and 500 m) have been successfully fabricated by electrochemical techniques. Both cross-linking agents did not affected the mechanical properties and cytocompatibility of the resulting structures. Depending on the pH, these structures show interesting swelling properties that can be exploited for drug delivery systems. Moreover, thanks to the possibility of controlling the porosity and the micro-channel orientation, they should be used for the regeneration of tissues requiring a preferential cells orientation, e.g., cardiac patches or ligament regeneration
Proceedings of the Fifth Italian Conference on Computational Linguistics CLiC-it 2018
On behalf of the Program Committee, a very warm welcome to the Fifth Italian Conference on Computational Linguistics (CLiC-Ââit 2018). This edition of the conference is held in Torino. The conference is locally organised by the University of Torino and hosted into its prestigious main lecture hall âCavallerizza Realeâ. The CLiC-Ââit conference series is an initiative of the Italian Association for Computational Linguistics (AILC) which, after five years of activity, has clearly established itself as the premier national forum for research and development in the fields of Computational Linguistics and Natural Language Processing, where leading researchers and practitioners from academia and industry meet to share their research results, experiences, and challenges
Effect of sonic versus ultrasonic activation on aqueous solution penetration in root canal dentin.
Porous Polyurethane Composites as Scaffolds for Bone Regeneration: Comparison between micro- and Nano- Sized Hydroxyapatite Fillers
In vitro dynamic culture of cell-biomaterial constructs
In the last years, the interest in bioreactors is constantly increasing in several fields of bioengineering and for various applications, thanks to the progresses in technology, engineering, stem cell biology, and material science. At different levels and for various applications bioreactors can be used in research as actuator systems (i.e., to apply complex stimuli to cells in dynamic culture), as model systems to study the development of biological tissues, or as systems to monitor the developmental parameters. Exploiting the potentiality of bioreactors, the biomedical industry invested in developing reliable and automated devices for 2D or 3D cell culture, having specific features such as modularity, scalability, and process traceability, to make bioreactors essential tools for the development of safe and reproducible biological constructs and for the study of new therapeutic drugs. Thanks to the efforts of researchers and industry, bioreactors can potentially be applied in the clinics for the development of products for Advanced Therapies, acting as automatic platforms for the economically and clinically sustainable fabrication of bioprocesses and cell products. This chapter is focused on the analysis of the translation of bioreactors from research to clinical application, providing information on the fundamental features and issues, as well as practical examples of devices design at each stage of development