La pericarditis purulenta es una entidad rara en la actualidad, de curso rápidamente fatal en aus... more La pericarditis purulenta es una entidad rara en la actualidad, de curso rápidamente fatal en ausencia de tratamiento y de difícil diagnóstico clínico antes de la aparición de taponamiento pericárdico. Producida clásicamente por gérmenes aerobios grampositivos, la incidencia de etiología anaerobia, gramnegativa y fúngica parece aumentar. La etiología neumocócica es hoy excepcional y prácticamente siempre acompañando a una infección pleuropulmonar evidente. Las bases del tratamiento son la pericardiocentesis precoz, la antibioterapia intravenosa de amplio espectro y el tratamiento de soporte en una Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos. La técnica de drenaje pericárdico idónea en estos pacientes continúa siendo tema de controversia, dada la escasa experiencia clínica existente. El pronóstico es bueno si el reconocimiento es precoz, con una tasa de secuelas relativamente baja, generalmente en forma de pericarditis constrictiva. Presentamos un caso de pericarditis purulenta neumocócica primaria y una revisión de la literatura al respecto.
Background: There is evidence that negative affect (NA) and anxiety sensitivity (AS) predict the ... more Background: There is evidence that negative affect (NA) and anxiety sensitivity (AS) predict the development of anxiety disorders, particularly panic disorder (PD). The main purpose of this study was to examine whether NA and AS will also predict the clinical course of PD. Methods: Participants were 136 individuals with a DSM-III-R diagnosis of PD (with or without agoraphobia) enrolled in a naturalistic and longitudinal study of anxiety disorders, the Harvard/Brown Anxiety Research Project (HARP). Participants were administered the Anxiety Sensitivity Index and the Negative Affect Scales of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule-Expanded Form (PANAS-X-NA) and their percentage of time in PD episode was followed for 1 year after the administration of the measures. Results: Multiple regression analyses indicated that AS, but not NA, was a significant predictor of percentage of time in PD episode after controlling for previous time in PD episodes, comorbid depression, other anxiety disorders, and exposure to psychopharmacological and behavioral treatments. As expected, the Physical Concerns subscale of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index had a significant independent contribution in predicting the course of the disorder. Conclusions: Overall, these findings suggest that AS, as a unique construct, may be predictive of the amount of time patients are in episode of PD. Depression and Anxiety, 2009. Published 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Mathematical Proceedings of The Cambridge Philosophical Society, 1998
CJO Search Widget (Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society) What is this?... more CJO Search Widget (Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society) What is this? ... Download a branded Cambridge Journals Online toolbar (for IE 7 only). What is this? ... Add Cambridge Journals Online as a search option in your browser toolbar. ...
Keystroke Dynamics is a powerful technique which allows to detect and identify intruders in compu... more Keystroke Dynamics is a powerful technique which allows to detect and identify intruders in computer systems. In order to test keystroke data pattern matching and clustering algorithms, user data collection is a mandatory task. Si6 Labs 3 developed a web application named k-profiler 4 with the purpose of collecting the typing rhythm data of volunteer users. This paper describes the experiment design criteria as well as the format of the collected data which will be used for Si6 projects and will be publicly available.
Many years of teaching general chemistry at the high school and introductory university level hav... more Many years of teaching general chemistry at the high school and introductory university level have shown us that one of the seemingly most abstruse and difficult concepts for students is the relative atomic mass (RAM) concept. The difficulty lies apparently in the word relative, and confusions go sometimes so far as students believing that one hydrogen atom weighs 1 g. Naturally, it may he very frustrating for a teacher to get this as an answer, after having spent hours in explainina one of the maior achievements in chemistry, which is the&ahliihment if the RAM scale.
Biomarkers that reflect immune response recovery and predict clinical events during withdrawal or... more Biomarkers that reflect immune response recovery and predict clinical events during withdrawal or minimization of immunosuppressive therapy have not been evaluated. This study aimed to evaluate whether immune response recovers after withdrawal of long-term immunosuppressive treatment in stable liver transplant patients and to determine whether specific biomarkers reflect immune response reactivity and predict rejection. Pharmacokineticpharmacodynamic profiles were determined in 24 patients and 80 healthy donors before immunosuppressive treatment reduction began, at 50%, and at complete withdrawal. In patients who rejected, effector-T-cell response mediated by soluble IFN-γ, %CD4 + IFN-γ and %CD8 + IL-2/ IFN-γ were significantly increased, while TGF-β1 production and the TGF-β1/IFN-γ ratio were significantly decreased. In patients with rejection, soluble IFN-γ and %CD8 + IL-2 were significantly higher before immunosuppressive treatment was reduced. Further studies are required, but this battery of biomarkers performed in whole blood could be a useful tool to monitor immunosuppressive treatment minimization or withdrawal protocols and identify patients at increased risk of rejection.
Intracellular ATP (iATP) production in CD4(+)-T cells has been proposed as a biomarker for routin... more Intracellular ATP (iATP) production in CD4(+)-T cells has been proposed as a biomarker for routine personalized monitoring in transplant recipients. The aim of our study was to measure this biomarker in adult renal and liver transplant recipients receiving moderate immunosuppressive treatment (IST) during the maintenance period and to evaluate whether this biomarker can effectively predict clinical status (stability, rejection, or infection) and drug effect. iATP concentration and trough blood levels of IST were evaluated in 84 adult transplant recipients (50 renal and 34 liver) during the maintenance period. One hundred and fifty healthy donors were also recruited as a control group. In addition, 22 of 34 liver transplant recipients were included in a clinical study in which IST was withdrawn gradually until total elimination. Most of the patients evaluated had iATP levels in the moderate immune response zone during a posttransplantation maintenance period with no relevant clinical events. iATP levels were significantly lower in transplant patients with infection (n=3) than in those free of infection. In the IST withdrawal study, 10 of 22 liver transplant recipients have achieved complete withdrawal and 12 receive 50% of IST. So far, there have been eight rejections once IST began to be withdrawn. None of these patients had iATP in the strong immune response zone (risk of rejection). iATP seems to be more effective in identifying overimmunosuppressed patients with a high risk of adverse events (IST-safety) than in identifying those with a high risk of rejection (IST-efficacy) and should be used in combination with other biomarkers of immunosuppressive effect to improve the efficacy of IST.
La pericarditis purulenta es una entidad rara en la actualidad, de curso rápidamente fatal en aus... more La pericarditis purulenta es una entidad rara en la actualidad, de curso rápidamente fatal en ausencia de tratamiento y de difícil diagnóstico clínico antes de la aparición de taponamiento pericárdico. Producida clásicamente por gérmenes aerobios grampositivos, la incidencia de etiología anaerobia, gramnegativa y fúngica parece aumentar. La etiología neumocócica es hoy excepcional y prácticamente siempre acompañando a una infección pleuropulmonar evidente. Las bases del tratamiento son la pericardiocentesis precoz, la antibioterapia intravenosa de amplio espectro y el tratamiento de soporte en una Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos. La técnica de drenaje pericárdico idónea en estos pacientes continúa siendo tema de controversia, dada la escasa experiencia clínica existente. El pronóstico es bueno si el reconocimiento es precoz, con una tasa de secuelas relativamente baja, generalmente en forma de pericarditis constrictiva. Presentamos un caso de pericarditis purulenta neumocócica primaria y una revisión de la literatura al respecto.
Background: There is evidence that negative affect (NA) and anxiety sensitivity (AS) predict the ... more Background: There is evidence that negative affect (NA) and anxiety sensitivity (AS) predict the development of anxiety disorders, particularly panic disorder (PD). The main purpose of this study was to examine whether NA and AS will also predict the clinical course of PD. Methods: Participants were 136 individuals with a DSM-III-R diagnosis of PD (with or without agoraphobia) enrolled in a naturalistic and longitudinal study of anxiety disorders, the Harvard/Brown Anxiety Research Project (HARP). Participants were administered the Anxiety Sensitivity Index and the Negative Affect Scales of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule-Expanded Form (PANAS-X-NA) and their percentage of time in PD episode was followed for 1 year after the administration of the measures. Results: Multiple regression analyses indicated that AS, but not NA, was a significant predictor of percentage of time in PD episode after controlling for previous time in PD episodes, comorbid depression, other anxiety disorders, and exposure to psychopharmacological and behavioral treatments. As expected, the Physical Concerns subscale of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index had a significant independent contribution in predicting the course of the disorder. Conclusions: Overall, these findings suggest that AS, as a unique construct, may be predictive of the amount of time patients are in episode of PD. Depression and Anxiety, 2009. Published 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Mathematical Proceedings of The Cambridge Philosophical Society, 1998
CJO Search Widget (Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society) What is this?... more CJO Search Widget (Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society) What is this? ... Download a branded Cambridge Journals Online toolbar (for IE 7 only). What is this? ... Add Cambridge Journals Online as a search option in your browser toolbar. ...
Keystroke Dynamics is a powerful technique which allows to detect and identify intruders in compu... more Keystroke Dynamics is a powerful technique which allows to detect and identify intruders in computer systems. In order to test keystroke data pattern matching and clustering algorithms, user data collection is a mandatory task. Si6 Labs 3 developed a web application named k-profiler 4 with the purpose of collecting the typing rhythm data of volunteer users. This paper describes the experiment design criteria as well as the format of the collected data which will be used for Si6 projects and will be publicly available.
Many years of teaching general chemistry at the high school and introductory university level hav... more Many years of teaching general chemistry at the high school and introductory university level have shown us that one of the seemingly most abstruse and difficult concepts for students is the relative atomic mass (RAM) concept. The difficulty lies apparently in the word relative, and confusions go sometimes so far as students believing that one hydrogen atom weighs 1 g. Naturally, it may he very frustrating for a teacher to get this as an answer, after having spent hours in explainina one of the maior achievements in chemistry, which is the&ahliihment if the RAM scale.
Biomarkers that reflect immune response recovery and predict clinical events during withdrawal or... more Biomarkers that reflect immune response recovery and predict clinical events during withdrawal or minimization of immunosuppressive therapy have not been evaluated. This study aimed to evaluate whether immune response recovers after withdrawal of long-term immunosuppressive treatment in stable liver transplant patients and to determine whether specific biomarkers reflect immune response reactivity and predict rejection. Pharmacokineticpharmacodynamic profiles were determined in 24 patients and 80 healthy donors before immunosuppressive treatment reduction began, at 50%, and at complete withdrawal. In patients who rejected, effector-T-cell response mediated by soluble IFN-γ, %CD4 + IFN-γ and %CD8 + IL-2/ IFN-γ were significantly increased, while TGF-β1 production and the TGF-β1/IFN-γ ratio were significantly decreased. In patients with rejection, soluble IFN-γ and %CD8 + IL-2 were significantly higher before immunosuppressive treatment was reduced. Further studies are required, but this battery of biomarkers performed in whole blood could be a useful tool to monitor immunosuppressive treatment minimization or withdrawal protocols and identify patients at increased risk of rejection.
Intracellular ATP (iATP) production in CD4(+)-T cells has been proposed as a biomarker for routin... more Intracellular ATP (iATP) production in CD4(+)-T cells has been proposed as a biomarker for routine personalized monitoring in transplant recipients. The aim of our study was to measure this biomarker in adult renal and liver transplant recipients receiving moderate immunosuppressive treatment (IST) during the maintenance period and to evaluate whether this biomarker can effectively predict clinical status (stability, rejection, or infection) and drug effect. iATP concentration and trough blood levels of IST were evaluated in 84 adult transplant recipients (50 renal and 34 liver) during the maintenance period. One hundred and fifty healthy donors were also recruited as a control group. In addition, 22 of 34 liver transplant recipients were included in a clinical study in which IST was withdrawn gradually until total elimination. Most of the patients evaluated had iATP levels in the moderate immune response zone during a posttransplantation maintenance period with no relevant clinical events. iATP levels were significantly lower in transplant patients with infection (n=3) than in those free of infection. In the IST withdrawal study, 10 of 22 liver transplant recipients have achieved complete withdrawal and 12 receive 50% of IST. So far, there have been eight rejections once IST began to be withdrawn. None of these patients had iATP in the strong immune response zone (risk of rejection). iATP seems to be more effective in identifying overimmunosuppressed patients with a high risk of adverse events (IST-safety) than in identifying those with a high risk of rejection (IST-efficacy) and should be used in combination with other biomarkers of immunosuppressive effect to improve the efficacy of IST.
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