Abstract - The aim of the present work was to monitor the covalent modifications of human serum albumin (HSA) in end stage renal diseases (ESRD) non diabetic patients, before and after hemodialysis (HD), by direct infusion electrospray mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). Human serum samples were collected from healthy subjects (n = ...

To evaluate the spatial distribution and total amount of macular pigment (MP) in patients with idiopathic macular telangiectasia type 2 (MacTel) compared to healthy subjects. Totals of 53 MacTel patients and 38 normal subjects underwent macular pigment optical density (MPOD) measurement using a 2-wavelength autofluorescence (2-AF) technique. The peak MPOD ...

PURPOSE: The Gates-based renography (gGFR) and plasma-based clearance rate (pGFR) are conventionally corrected with body surface area (BSA). Limited studies indicated that the lean body mass (LBM) might be better than BSA in correcting pGFR. Therefore, we suggest that LBM is also better in correcting gGFR and improve the correlation ...

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship between the body mass index and the size of renal stones in a group of patients with urolithiasis. METHODS: One-hundred seventy-three patients with renal stones were enrolled. Body mass index was calculated on the basis of height and weight measurements, and stone size was either ...

BACKGROUND: Volumetric capnography reflecting the course of CO(2)-exhalation is used to assess ventilation inhomogeneity. Calculation of the slope of expiratory phase 3 and the capnographic index (KPI(v)) from expirograms allows quantification of extent and severity of small airway impairment. However, technical limitations have hampered more widespread use of this technique. ...

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this prospective bicentric study was to investigate the course of serum calcium (Ca) and phosphorus (Phph) after total/completion thyroidectomy to establish a reliable and cost-effective strategic algorithm to detect patients at risk for postoperative hypocalcemia. METHODS: This observational study included 136 patients. Serum Ca and Phph ...

AIMS: Total bilirubin tests are individually inexpensive but can result in huge costs to healthcare systems worldwide, because they are very commonly requested. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the icteric index, a test with zero reagent cost, as a preliminary biomarker to ...

Objective: To determine the association of serum cholesterol levels with Child-Pugh class in patients with decompensated chronic liver disease due to viral hepatitis. Study Design: Cross-sectional analytical study. Place and Duration of Study: Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi, Medical Unit-III, Ward-7 from June to December 2010. Methodology: Consecutive patients attending ...

Objectives:  Detrusor myectomy is a recognized method of bladder augmentation for treating refractory detrusor overactivity. Herein we report the long-term outcomes of this procedure at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, UK. Methods:  Detrusor myectomy was carried out in 33 patients (7 males, 26 females) with urodynamically proven detrusor ...

OBJECTIVES: Although "clinical remission" has been a realistic goal of treatment in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), there is evidence that subclinical synovitis is associated with ongoing structural damage even after clinical remission is achieved. In the study reported here, we assessed whether ultrasonography (US) can predict progressive joint destruction during clinical ...

Background The occurrence of severe carotid artery disease in more than 12% of patients requiring coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) results in a discrepancy concerning best treatment for both diseases. We reviewed the early outcome of patients with CABG and/or valve replacement (VR) and simultaneous carotid endarterectomy (CEA).Methods We retrospectively ...

OBJECTIVES: Available data on colistin pharmacokinetics in patients undergoing continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) are limited. Our aim was to study colistin pharmacokinetics in critically ill patients treated with colistin methane sulphonate for Gram-negative sepsis and undergoing continuous venovenous haemodiafiltration for acute renal failure. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Three patients were ...

Background: Current management guidelines suggest that 6-12 months after total thyroidectomy and radioactive iodine remnant ablation (RAI-RA), patients with differentiated thyroid cancer should be re-evaluated with serum thyroglobulin (Tg) and neck ultrasonography to assess the efficacy of initial treatment and to guide subsequent management. However, if serum Tg levels can ...

Background and Objectives: The control of hyperphosphatemia is an unmet need in dialysis care. Compared to conventional hemodialysis (cHD), extended hemodialysis (eHD) appears to more easily control blood phosphate levels in chronically dialyzed patients. Here, we sought to compare eKT/V-matched cHD and eHD procedures in order to quantify the contribution ...

Hyperbilirubinemia in the early phase after allogeneic hematopoietic SCT (HSCT) is due to various causes. One of the most important causes of hyperbilirubinemia is veno-occlusive disease/sinusoidal obstructive syndrome (VOD/SOS). However, the prognosis of patients who are clinically diagnosed as SOS varies. We retrospectively evaluated 82 patients who underwent their first ...

Background/Aims: The usefulness of capsule endoscopy (CE) and of double-balloon endoscopy (DBE) for detection of small-bowel lesions is widely accepted. We compared CE- and DBE-based detection of small-bowel lesions in patients with obscure gastrointestinal bleeding (OGIB) who underwent total enteroscopy by both CE and DBE. Methodology: One hundred eighteen consecutive ...

We aimed to investigate the effect of metal ions on the semen of males of child fathering age with metal-on-metal (MM) total hip arthroplasty (THA). Semen was collected form 11 patients with MM THA and 5 control of comparable age. Cobalt and chromiun concentrations were measured in both the seminal ...

We aimed to study the voice profiles of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and correlate the profiles with disease severity. A total of 133 patients with PD were recruited. Patients were divided into two groups: Group 1 with a Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) score of ⩽45; and Group ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in the cerebrospinal fluid sphingolipid profile in patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage in relation to the occurrence of symptomatic vasospasm and outcome at hospital discharge. METHODS: The ceramide profile in the cerebrospinal fluid was determined by mass spectrometry in ...

Cerebellar dysfunction is an important contributor to disability in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), however, few in vivo studies focused on cerebellar volume loss so far. This relates to technical challenges regarding the segmentation of the cerebellum. In this study, we evaluated the semi-automatic ECCET software for performing cerebellar volumetry ...

OBJECTIVES: To study the responsiveness (sensitivity to change) of the Motor Function Measure in detecting change in neuromuscular disease patients with the intent of using this Measure in future clinical trials. DESIGN: Prospective cohort observational study. SETTING: Inpatient and outpatient facilities for follow-up and treatment of neuromuscular diseases. PARTICIPANTS: Patients ...

PURPOSE: The aim of the present study was to correlate computed tomography appearances with clinical severity and outcome using a total lung disease (TLD) score in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) related to influenza A H1N1 infection. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Chest computed tomographic scans of 33 patients admitted ...

ObjectivesTo conduct a case-control study of abnormalities in the semen of genitourinary (GU) medicine clinic attendees compared with general practice (GP) controls and in patients with asymptomatic and symptomatic non-specific urethritis (NSU) before and after the urethritis resolves.MethodsRates of semen abnormalities were compared between the different groups (19 with symptomatic ...

Object Corpus callosotomy is usually intended to alleviate-not to achieve total control of-epileptic seizures. A few patients experience complete seizure control after callosotomy, but the associated clinical factors are unknown. The object of this study was to investigate clinical factors associated with long-term seizure remission after total corpus callosotomy in ...

BACKGROUND: Transjugular liver biopsy (TJLB) is usually performed when a percutaneous liver biopsy (PLB) is contraindicated. TJLB is an invasive procedure and the patient's tolerance may be variable. AIM: To compare patient tolerance and quality of the biopsy sample between PLB and TJLB. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 143 ...

Peri-articular soft-tissue masses or 'pseudotumours' can occur after large-diameter metal-on-metal (MoM) resurfacing of the hip and conventional total hip replacement (THR). Our aim was to assess the incidence of pseudotumour formation and to identify risk factors for their formation in a prospective cohort study. A total of 119 patients who ...

Early-onset multiple sclerosis (EOMS) is defined as the first presentation of symptoms in childhood (before the age of 16 years). EOMS occurs in about 0.4% to 10.5% of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. In this retrospective population-based study we aimed to describe the clinical/paraclinical details and frequency of epileptic seizures in ...

The aim of the study is to compare, in coronary artery disease patients, physical activity (PA) assessed with the Dijon Physical Activity Questionnaire (DPAQ) and the true PA objectively measured using an accelerometer. Seventy patients wore an accelerometer (MyWellness Key actimeter) throughout 1 week after a cardiac rehabilitation program that ...

PURPOSE: To externally validate the performance characteristics of the Briganti's risk stratification tool for baseline staging bone scan in patients with newly diagnosed prostate cancer (PCa). METHODS: From 2009 onwards, a consecutive series of patients with PCa were enrolled. All patients were staged to evaluate the presence of bone metastasis ...

Introduction Malrotation is a common abnormality, often diagnosed in the neonatal period. Symptoms may be nonspecific and clinical signs of volvulus are often only seen in the late stages when there has been significant ischemic insult to the bowel. The gold standard diagnostic investigation is the upper gastrointestinal (UGI) contrast ...

Automatic detections of paroxysms in patients with childhood absence epilepsy have been neglected for several years. We acquire reliable detections using only a single-channel brainwave monitor, allowing for unobtrusive monitoring of antiepileptic drug effects. Ultimately we seek to obtain optimal long-term prognoses, balancing antiepileptic effects and side effects. The electroencephalographic ...

The goal of this study was to assess the diagnostic performance of cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) compared with endomyocardial biopsy in patients with suspected acute myocarditis (AMC) and chronic myocarditis (CMC). Several studies have reported an encouraging diagnostic performance of CMR in myocarditis. However, the comparison of CMR with clinical ...

Context:Hypocalcemia, transient or permanent, represents a common complication after total thyroidectomy, but data on the secretory capacity of the parathyroid glands in thyroidectomized patients without clinical or biochemical hypocalcemia are limited.Study Design:To address this issue, we studied the parathyroid response to acute hypocalcemia induced by iv infusion of sodium bicarbonate ...

OBJECTIVE: To describe clinical features of epilepsy secondary to Malformation of Cortical Development (MCD) in a series of adult patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We searched our database for all cases with confirmed epilepsy and MCD and included in the study only those with complete data. Mean age, sex, age at ...

The objective of this study was to compare preoperative expectation scores between stages in patients with bilateral total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and total hip arthroplasty (THA) using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). For patients with TKA (57), ICC was 0.449, indicating fair agreement between stages; expectations did not change for 31% ...

The aim of this study was to assess incidence and risk factors for acute kidney injury (AKI) in patients with dengue fever (DF). A total of 223 patients (males, 130; females, 93; mean age, 26.2 ± 18.2 years) from a tertiary care centre in southern India were retrospectively analysed. Acute ...

ABSTRACT: Depending upon the method of measurement, hypocalcemia occurs in 15% to 88% and hypercalcemia occurs in 15% of hospitalized patients. Ionized calcium should be measured in place of total serum calcium to avoid errors related to hypoalbuminemia, which is seen commonly in acutely ill patients. Symptomatic hypocalcemia requires prompt ...

Background: Cardiovascular disease is prevalent among patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Patients with CKD have elevated levels of p-cresylsulfate (PCS), which has been linked with cardiovascular mortality in this population. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical significance of CKD in coronary artery disease (CAD) patients ...

BACKGROUND: The course of ulcerative colitis (UC) following orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) for primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is unclear. AIM: To investigate the clinical course of UC, before and after OLT for PSC. METHODS: From a historical cohort of 86 patients with PSC-UC who underwent OLT, 77 patients who were ...

Objective:  Although larger biopsies sample had been recommended for study of non-invasive liver fibrosis assessment, few studies with larger biopsies for transient elastography (TE) detecting liver fibrosis had been reported. Present study tries to re-evaluate performance of TE for detecting advanced fibrosis (≥F3) with larger biopsies in patients with compensated ...

AIMS: To describe the terminology and pattern of bladder sensations experienced during non-invasive rapid bladder filling in a controlled setting in patients with OAB and to compare these results with a previous study conducted in healthy volunteers. METHODS: Three groups of patients with OAB, in total 10 patients, participated in ...

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to validate the Chronic Liver Disease Questionnaire (CLDQ) for use in Brazilian population. METHOD: A total of 200 patients with chronic liver disease and varying disease severity answered a socio-demographic questionnaire, t CLDQ, and the Medical Outcome Study Short Form 36 (SF-36). Patients ...

A short-cut review was carried out to establish whether early enteral feeding is indicated in acute pancreatitis. A total of 33 papers was found using the reported search, of which four represented the best evidence to answer the clinical question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, ...

BACKGROUND AND AIM: To investigate the role of group-specific component globulin (Gc-globulin) in the early process of severe acute pancreatitis (SAP). PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 37 patients with SAP and 31 patients with mild acute pancreatitis (MAP) were enrolled in the study. Twenty healthy individuals served as controls. ...

Technetium-99m methylene diphosphonate (Tc-99m MDP) whole-body bone scintigraphy (BS) has been widely used for detecting bone metastases. The aim of this study is to investigate the diagnostic accuracy of BS in detecting skeletal metastases for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. In addition, the anatomic distribution of the metastatic bone lesions and ...

Phosphorylated α-synuclein (PS-129), a protein implicated in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease (PD), was identified by mass spectrometry in human cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). A highly sensitive and specific assay was established and used to measure PS-129 together with total α-synuclein in the CSF of patients with PD, other parkinsonian disorders ...

To determine whether total joint arthroplasty (TJA) for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is decreasing, we collected Nationwide Inpatient Sample database information (1992 through 2005) on (1) the number of primary TJAs for all patient diagnoses, (2) the number of primary TJAs for patients with RA, and (3) distribution of ...

INTRODUCTION: Comparison of lumbosacral dysplasia between normal individuals and patients with low and high grade spondylolisthesis has not been done previously. The objective of this study is to evaluate the relationship between lumbosacral dysplasia and severity of slip in young patients with lumbosacral spondylolisthesis. METHODS: Postero-anterior and lateral radiographs of ...

BACKGROUND: The association between undetectable serum total IgE level and chronic upper and lower respiratory tract inflammatory diseases is uncertain. We sought to determine whether chronic sinopulmonary inflammatory diseases are present in adult patients with undetectable serum total IgE who reside in inner-city Chicago, IL, USA. METHODS: Medical records of ...

ObjectivesTo what extent silent paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF) is present in ischaemic stroke patients has not been established. We hypothesized that brief intermittent long-term electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings at regular time intervals are more effective than short-term continuous ECG monitoring in detecting silent AF episodes.Methods and ResultsConsecutive patients who had suffered ...