1,044 research outputs found
A case of nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy of a male with family history of the disease after receiving sildenafil
A 51-year-old male was referred to the University Eye Clinic of Ioannina with nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION) 12 hours after receiving sildenafil citrate (Viagra®). Examination for possible risk factors revealed mild hypercholesterolemia. Family history showed that his father had suffered from bilateral NAION. Although a cause-and-effect relationship is difficult to prove, there are reports indicating an association between the use of erectile dysfunction agents and the development of NAION. Physicians might need to investigate the presence of family history of NAION among systemic or vascular predisposing risk factors before prescribing erectile dysfunction drugs
Twenty-four hour efficacy with preservative free tafluprost compared with latanoprost in patients with primary open angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension
10openopenKonstas A.G.; Quaranta L.; Katsanos A.; Riva I.; Tsai J.C.; Giannopoulos T.; Voudouragkaki I.C.; Paschalinou E.; Floriani I.; Haidich A.B.Konstas, A. G.; Quaranta, Luciano; Katsanos, A.; Riva, Ivano; Tsai, J. C.; Giannopoulos, T.; Voudouragkaki, I. C.; Paschalinou, E.; Floriani, I.; Haidich, A. B
The D0 Run IIb Luminosity Measurement
An assessment of the recorded integrated luminosity is presented for data
collected with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider from June 2006
to September 2011 (Run IIb). In addition, a measurement of the effective cross
section for inelastic interactions, also referred to as the luminosity
constant, is reported. This measurement incorporates new features that lead to
a substantial improvement in the precision of the result. A luminosity constant
of \sigma_{LM} = 48.3\pm1.9\pm0.6 mb is obtained, where the first uncertainty
is due to the accuracy of the inelastic cross section used by both CDF and D0,
and the second uncertainty is due to D0 sources. The recorded luminosity for
the highest E_T jet trigger is L_rec = 9.2 \pm 0.4 fb^{-1}, with a relative
uncertainty of 4.3%.Comment: 20 pages, 23 figure
Health-related quality of life in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma. An Italian multicentre observational study
Purpose: As a progressive condition, glaucoma may impair health-related quality of life (HRQoL), due to vision loss and
other factors. This study evaluated HRQoL in a cohort of patients treated for primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) and
assessed its association with clinical features.
Methods: This was an Italian, multicentre, cross-sectional, observational study with the subgroup of newly diagnosed
patients with POAG prospectively followed up for one year. Patients with previous or new diagnosis (or strong clinical
suspicion) of POAG aged >18 years were considered eligible. Information was collected on demographic characteristics,
medical history, clinical presentation and POAG treatments. HRQoL was measured using the 25-item National Eye
Institute Visual Function Questionnaire (NEI-VFQ-25) and Glaucoma Symptom Scale (GSS). Subscale and total scores
were obtained and a Pearson correlation coefficient between instruments’ scores calculated.
Results: A total of 3227 patients were enrolled from 2012 to 2013 and 3169 were analysed. Mean age was 66.9 years. A
total of 93.8% had a previous diagnosis (median duration: 8.0 years). Median values for mean deviation and pattern
standard deviation were 3.9 and 3.6 dB, respectively. Mean scores on most subscales of the NEI-VFQ-25 exceeded 75.0
and mean GSS subscale scores ranged between 70.8 and 79.7 (with a total mean score of 74.8). HRQoL scores on both
scales were significantly inversely associated with POAG severity.
Conclusion: In this large sample of Italians treated for POAG, disease severity was limited and HRQoL scores were high.
QoL decreased with advancing disease severity. These findings confirm the role of vision loss in impairing QoL in POAG,
underlying the importance of timely detection and appropriate treatment
Vascular conditioning prevents adverse left ventricular remodelling after acute myocardial infarction: a randomised remote conditioning study
Aims:
Remote ischemic conditioning (RIC) alleviates ischemia–reperfusion injury via several pathways, including micro-RNAs (miRs) expression and oxidative stress modulation. We investigated the effects of RIC on endothelial glycocalyx, arterial stiffness, LV remodelling, and the underlying mediators within the vasculature as a target for protection.
Methods and results:
We block-randomised 270 patients within 48 h of STEMI post-PCI to either one or two cycles of bilateral brachial cuff inflation, and a control group without RIC. We measured: (a) the perfusion boundary region (PBR) of the sublingual arterial microvessels to assess glycocalyx integrity; (b) the carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV); (c) miR-144,-150,-21,-208, nitrate-nitrite (NOx) and malondialdehyde (MDA) plasma levels at baseline (T0) and 40 min after RIC onset (T3); and (d) LV volumes at baseline and after one year. Compared to baseline, there was a greater PBR and PWV decrease, miR-144 and NOx levels increase (p 15% (odds-ratio of 3.75, p = 0.029). MiR-144 and PWV changes post-RIC were interrelated and associated with LVESV reduction at follow-up (r = 0.40 and 0.37, p < 0.05), in the single-cycle RIC.
Conclusion:
RIC evokes “vascular conditioning” likely by upregulation of cardio-protective microRNAs, NOx production, and oxidative stress reduction, facilitating reverse LV remodelling
Localization Transition in Multilayered Disordered Systems
The Anderson delocalization-localization transition is studied in
multilayered systems with randomly placed interlayer bonds of density and
strength . In the absence of diagonal disorder (W=0), following an
appropriate perturbation expansion, we estimate the mean free paths in the main
directions and verify by scaling of the conductance that the states remain
extended for any finite , despite the interlayer disorder. In the presence
of additional diagonal disorder () we obtain an Anderson transition with
critical disorder and localization length exponent independently of
the direction. The critical conductance distribution varies,
however, for the parallel and the perpendicular directions. The results are
discussed in connection to disordered anisotropic materials.Comment: 10 pages, Revtex file, 8 postscript files, minor change
Spectral Statistics in Chiral-Orthogonal Disordered Systems
We describe the singularities in the averaged density of states and the
corresponding statistics of the energy levels in two- (2D) and
three-dimensional (3D) chiral symmetric and time-reversal invariant disordered
systems, realized in bipartite lattices with real off-diagonal disorder. For
off-diagonal disorder of zero mean we obtain a singular density of states in 2D
which becomes much less pronounced in 3D, while the level-statistics can be
described by semi-Poisson distribution with mostly critical fractal states in
2D and Wigner surmise with mostly delocalized states in 3D. For logarithmic
off-diagonal disorder of large strength we find indistinguishable behavior from
ordinary disorder with strong localization in any dimension but in addition
one-dimensional Dyson-like asymptotic spectral singularities. The
off-diagonal disorder is also shown to enhance the propagation of two
interacting particles similarly to systems with diagonal disorder. Although
disordered models with chiral symmetry differ from non-chiral ones due to the
presence of spectral singularities, both share the same qualitative
localization properties except at the chiral symmetry point E=0 which is
critical.Comment: 13 pages, Revtex file, 8 postscript files. It will appear in the
special edition of J. Phys. A for Random Matrix Theor
- …