Anemia in Heart Failure Patients

Heart failure is a very common disease, with severe morbidity and mortality, and a frequent reason of hospitalization. Anemia and a concurrent renal impairment are two major risk factors contributing to the severity of the outcome and consist of the cardio renal anemia syndrome. Anemia in heart failure is complex and multifactorial. Hemodilution, absolute or functional iron deficiency, activation of the inflammatory cascade, and impaired erythropoietin production and activity are some pathophysiological mechanisms involved in anemia of the heart failure. Furthermore other concomitant causes of anemia, such as myelodysplastic syndrome and chemotherapy, may worsen the outcome. Based on the pathophysiology of cardiac anemia, there are several therapeutic options that may improve hemoglobin levels, tissues' oxygenation, and probably the outcome. These include administration of iron, erythropoiesis-stimulating agents, and blood transfusions but still the evidence provided for their use remains limited

Service oriented cloud CPE as a means of a future terminal

The current CPE deployment model, which is based on deploying “intelligent” independent equipment in the customer premises, has important challenges that have been limiting the profitability of services for telecommunications service providers. Cloud CPE model provides a win for cost and service performance for the future, as it reduces onsite CPE complex requirements to a minimum and moves these features into the cloud, under service provider control. The financial analysis proves that the cCPE is a viable solution for the operators and also it is proved that can bring costs down for the operator but also for the end user and can be a viable solution for the 5G ecosystem

Control Framework for Ultra-dense cellular networks

The current work focuses on the current network deployments and the transition to the 5G era, toward encompassing the proposed approaches in the network design. In this direction, the base station densification gain and the control/coordination of the Radio Access Network (RAN) are being taken into account. The densification gain (with respect to the Base Station density) represents the ability of the network to offer the desired data rate and comply with other important key performance indices for a 5G environment. Finally, load balancing and offloading techniques are discussed which are going to play an important role in the future networks. A coordination framework for the whole RAN infrastructure has been described by setting the criteria and the control mechanisms for the management of the network

Efficient Resource Allocation and Spectrum Trading for Virtualized Multi-tenant 5G Networks

The huge increase of mobile devices and user data demand has initiated efforts for more efficient mobile network solutions. To this direction, virtualization has attracted much attention as a promising solution for higher resource utilization and improved system performance. Therefore, basic on-demand wireless resource allocation approaches among multiple tenants are investigated. Taking also into consideration two contrasting terms, the spectrum scarcity and the spectrum underutilization, this work proposes spectrum trading among frequency owners and tenants, enabling dynamic spectrum access and optimal management

Matching theory as enabler of efficient spectrum management in 5G networks

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Tsirakis, C, Lopez‐Aguilera, E, Agapiou, G, Varoutas, D. Matching theory as enabler of efficient spectrum management in 5G networks. Trans Emerging Tel Tech. 2020; 31:e3769., which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/ett.3769. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.This paper analyzes the spectrum trading problem in virtualized fifth generation (5G) networks in order to enhance the network performance with respect to the spectrum utilization. The problem is modeled as a Many-to-Many Matching (M2MM) game with utility-based preferences and determines the matching between mobile network operators and mobile virtual network operators. The two proposed versions of utility functions for each set aim at maximizing the satisfaction of both sets with conflicting interests and improving the overall spectrum efficiency. In the simulation evaluation, the proposed scheme is compared with three different schemes in terms of the system utility, individual and pair matching satisfaction. We also investigate the scalability aspects, the strategy plan impact on the matching performance of our proposed scheme, and, at the same time, we attempt to make appropriate assumptions closer to reality. Our proposed scheme shows much better performance than the other schemes achieving a quite high level of satisfaction for the matching result on both sets.Postprint (author's final draft

Spectrum trading in virtualized multi-tenant 5G networks

© 2018 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.In this research work, we analyze the problem of spectrum trading in virtualized multi-tenant 5G networks using principles from matching theory. More specifically, we deal with the matching problem among the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and the Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) and we propose a matching scheme that takes into account the preferences of each entity in terms of different utility variables. Our proposal includes a many-to-many matching scheme, that is an extension of the deferred acceptance algorithm, where each MNO and MVNO can cooperate with one or more MVNOs and MNOs, respectively. The performance of our proposed scheme is finally investigated by comparing it with various schemes and some useful conclusions are drawn.Postprint (author's final draft

Miliary tuberculosis with no pulmonary involvement in myelodysplastic syndromes: a curable, yet rarely diagnosed, disease: case report and review of the literature

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although tuberculosis is not uncommon among patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), only a few reports of such patients suffering from miliary tuberculosis (MT) exist. MT often presents as a fever of unknown origin and it is a curable disease, yet fatal if left untreated.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report a case of MT with no clinical or laboratory indications of pulmonary involvement in a patient with MDS, and review the relevant literature. <it>Mycobacterium tuberculosis </it>was isolated from the liquid culture of a bone marrow aspirate.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Even if the initial diagnostic investigation for a fever of obscure etiology is negative, MT should not be excluded from the differential diagnosis list. Since it is a curable disease, persistent and vigorous diagnostic efforts are warranted. In suspected cases, mycobacterial blood cultures should be collected as soon as possible after hospital admission and early bone marrow aspirate with mycobacterial cultures is advocated.</p

Coexistence of Plasma Cell Dyscrasia with Prefibrotic Stage of Primary Myelofibrosis: A Case Report

Introduction. Coexistence of myeloproliferative neoplasms with lymphoproliferative syndromes has been described in the past, whereas plasma cell dyscrasias seem to be the most common cases. Case Presentation. We present a case of a 59-year-old Caucasian female of Greek origin who presented with thrombocytosis. Clinical and laboratory investigation disclosed the presence of a smoldering myeloma with coexisting histological and molecular characteristics of primary myelofibrosis. The patient had the acquired point mutation V617F in the JAK2 gene but not the bcr-abl rearrangement and was treated for myelofibrosis with subsequent improvement of all haematological parameters without evidence of myelomatic evolution. Conclusion. We present the first case in the literature of a smoldering myeloma coexisting with primary myelofibrosis. The underlying pathogenetic mechanism could be either related to the presence of a pluripotent neoplastic stem cell capable to differentiate into both lymphoid and myeloid cells or be related to two separate nosologic entities

Circulating osteopontin: a dual marker of bone destruction and angiogenesis in patients with multiple myeloma

The matrix protein osteopontin has been shown to be a marker of osteoclastic activity in multiple myeloma patients, as well as a regulator of angiogenesis. We measured serum levels of osteopontin in 50 untreated multiple myeloma patients (in 25, also after treatment) and examined the relation to markers of osteolytic and angiogenic activity. The median (range) of serum osteopontin was 85 (5-232) in the patient group vs. 36 (2-190) ng/ml in the control group. Serum osteopontin levels were significantly higher in patients with advanced stage or grade of myeloma disease. All patients with serum osteopontin levels >100 ng/ml had advanced stage (II or III) or high grade bone disease, whereas stage I or low grade patients had serum osteopontin levels <100ng/ml. Serum osteopontin levels significantly decreased after treatment. There was a positive correlation of osteopontin with the bone turnover marker N-terminal propeptide of procollagen type I (NTx) and the angiogenic markers vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and bone marrow microvessel density (r: 0.35, 0.47 and 0.30 respectively, p < 0.05). These results support osteopontin as a dual marker of bone destruction and angiogenic activity in myeloma patients. Osteopontin represents a useful biomarker for monitoring myeloma disease activity