tbuckley/cabot-search huggingface dataset:
Assessment of left ventricular function following coronary bypass surgery: a non-invasive study
Authors: T. Hardarson, G. M. Ziady, H. N. Khattri
Journal: Thorax (1974)

<b>Hardarson, T., Ziady, G. M., and Khattri, H. N. (1974).</b><i>Thorax</i>, <b>29</b>, 359-365. <b>Assessment of left ventricular function following coronary bypass surgery: a non-invasive study.</b> In a series of 15 patients with ischaemic heart disease, systolic time intervals (STI) were measured before, and at one week, three months, and six months following coronary vein-graft surgery. Preoperatively, the left ventricular ejection time (LVET) was abnormally short in seven patients, while the pre-ejection period was abnormally long in seven patients, suggesting impaired left ventricular function. At one week after surgery LVET and total electromechanical systole (QA2) were significantly abbreviated. This may be explained by the transient fall in cardiac output or postoperative neurohumoral changes. For the group as a whole, no significant changes were found at three or six months, suggesting that cardiac function was generally preserved rather than improved. However, in individual patients changes in STI correlated with the clinical and angiographic estimate of success of the operative treatment.
Quantitative Assay for Evaluating Immunocompetence and DNA Repair Capacity
Authors: L. L. Larcom, M.E. Smith
Journal: JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute (1988)

Incorporation of radioactive thymidine into newly synthesized DNA is the basis of an assay frequently to study immunosuppression in cancer patients. It has also been used to measure the amount of excision repair performed by nonreplicating cells damaged by carcinogens. For human lymphocytes (and probably other cell types), these assays are unreliable as they are currently being performed. We report a modified assay that allows accurate comparisons of the immunocompetence and DNA repair capacity of different individuals. With this assay, cells can be studied in their autologous plasma and the role of biological response modifiers can be assessed. [J Natl Cancer Inst 1988;80:1112–1118]
Additive Effects of Obesity and TCF7L2 Variants on Risk for Type 2 Diabetes Among Cardiac Patients
Authors: Qing Ling Duan, Marie-Pierre Dubé, Nancy Frasure-Smith, Amina Barhdadi, François Lesperance, Pierre Théroux, Judith St-Onge, Guy A. Rouleau, Jeanne M. McCaffery
Journal: Diabetes Care (2007)

A microsatellite marker, DG10S478, in the transcription factor 7-like 2 ( TCF7L2 ) gene was previously associated with type 2 diabetes in three Caucasian populations (1). This association followed earlier reports by the same group (2) and a separate team (3), which showed suggestive linkage to chromosomal 10q. Grant et al. (1) demonstrated that allele X (a composite of all but the shortest allele) of DG10S478 conferred an increased risk for type 2 diabetes of 45 and 141% among heterozygotes and homozygotes, respectively. Since this report, numerous groups have replicated the association in various populations and extended it to include two intronic single nucleotide polymorphisms (rs12255372 and rs7903146) (4–20). In this study, we investigated the combined effect of obesity and genotype at DG10S478 and rs12255372 in predicting type 2 diabetes risk in a sample of French Canadian cardiac patients.

Patients of French Canadian descent with established coronary artery disease recruited in two earlier studies, Polymorphisme ( n = 484) and the Epidemiological Study of Acute Coronary Syndromes and the Pathophysiology of Emotions (ESCAPE; n = 596) (21), were included. All participants were identified between November 1998 and April 2002 at the Montreal Heart Institute and Hopital Sacre-Coeur and gave written informed consent. Protocols were approved by the ethics committees at both institutions.

Type 2 diabetes was defined as the use of diabetes medications or fasting blood glucose >126 mg/dl (7.0 mmol/l). BMI was calculated as the weight in kilograms …
Low back pain in elite track and field athletes
Authors: N Malliaropoulos, G Bikos, K Tsitas, S Papadopoulou
Journal: British Journal of Sports Medicine (2011)

Introduction Low back pain is an extremely common symptom, not a disease, and has many causes with disc pathology being the underlying reason in most of the cases.The aim of this study was to investigate and compare the causes of low back pain (LBP) in elite track and field athletes of their different events. Material and method Retrospective cohort study of S.E.G.A.S. sports clinic LBP reports compiled by certified physicians between 1988 and 2008.The participants were 18–26 year-old male and female elite track and field athletes with low bak pain. The main outcome measure was an analysis of aetiology of LBP at three event category athletes: throwers, jumpers, and sprinters and their lumbar pain problems were categorised at discogenic (disk herniation, derangement, bulging), muscle injuries, back element injuries (spondylolysis, spondylolisthesis, facet joint syndrome), complex injuries (combination of the categories above) and other problems (Scheuerman disease, compresion fractures, etc). Results Ninety four athletes with low back pain (44 sprinters, 29 throwers and 44 jumpers) which visited the sport clinic totaly 184 times (a percentage of 3.6% at a total number of 2591 injured athletes) were included in the study. When evaluating all events concurrently discogenic problems were the most common cause of low back pain followed in descending order by muscle and back elements injuries with the same percentage and complex problems with the discogenic causal element prevailed. Conclusion When evaluating all these three categories emerges clearly the prevalence of discogenic aetiology lumbar pain in these categories of athletes.
CD8+ immunodominance among Epstein-Barr virus lytic cycle antigens directly reflects the efficiency of antigen presentation in lytically infected cells
Authors: Victoria A. Pudney, Alison M. Leese, Alan B. Rickinson, Andrew D. Hislop
Journal: The Journal of Experimental Medicine (2005)

Antigen immunodominance is an unexplained feature of CD8+ T cell responses to herpesviruses, which are agents whose lytic replication involves the sequential expression of immediate early (IE), early (E), and late (L) proteins. Here, we analyze the primary CD8 response to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection for reactivity to 2 IE proteins, 11 representative E proteins, and 10 representative L proteins, across a range of HLA backgrounds. Responses were consistently skewed toward epitopes in IE and a subset of E proteins, with only occasional responses to novel epitopes in L proteins. CD8+ T cell clones to representative IE, E, and L epitopes were assayed against EBV-transformed lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) containing lytically infected cells. This showed direct recognition of lytically infected cells by all three sets of effectors but at markedly different levels, in the order IE &amp;gt; E ≫ L, indicating that the efficiency of epitope presentation falls dramatically with progress of the lytic cycle. Thus, EBV lytic cycle antigens display a hierarchy of immunodominance that directly reflects the efficiency of their presentation in lytically infected cells; the CD8+ T cell response thereby focuses on targets whose recognition leads to maximal biologic effect.
Insights into the multistep transformation of MGUS to myeloma using microarray expression analysis
Authors: Faith E. Davies, Ann M. Dring, Cheng Li, Andrew C. Rawstron, Masood A. Shammas, Sheila M. O'Connor, James A.L. Fenton, Teru Hideshima, Dharminder Chauhan, Isabella T. Tai, Elizabeth Robinson, Daniel Auclair, Karen Rees, David Gonzalez, A. John Ashcroft, Ranjit Dasgupta, Constantine Mitsiades, Nicholas Mitsiades, Lan B. Chen, Wing H. Wong, Nikhil C. Munshi, Gareth J. Morgan, Kenneth C. Anderson
Journal: Blood (2003)
Excess of cardiovascular mortality among node-negative breast cancer patients irradiated for inner-quadrant tumors
Authors: C. Bouchardy, E. Rapiti, M. Usel, S. Balmer Majno, G. Vlastos, S. Benhamou, R. Miralbell, I. Neyroud-Caspar, H.M. Verkooijen, V. Vinh-Hung
Journal: Annals of Oncology (2009)
Neural Basis of Reinforcement Learning and Decision Making
Authors: Daeyeol Lee, Hyojung Seo, Min Whan Jung
Journal: Annual Review of Neuroscience (2012)

Reinforcement learning is an adaptive process in which an animal utilizes its previous experience to improve the outcomes of future choices. Computational theories of reinforcement learning play a central role in the newly emerging areas of neuroeconomics and decision neuroscience. In this framework, actions are chosen according to their value functions, which describe how much future reward is expected from each action. Value functions can be adjusted not only through reward and penalty, but also by the animal's knowledge of its current environment. Studies have revealed that a large proportion of the brain is involved in representing and updating value functions and using them to choose an action. However, how the nature of a behavioral task affects the neural mechanisms of reinforcement learning remains incompletely understood. Future studies should uncover the principles by which different computational elements of reinforcement learning are dynamically coordinated across the entire brain.
Cyclosporin and serum lipids in renal transplant recipients
Authors: Florian Kronenberg, Paul König, Karl Lhotta, Alfred Königsrainer, Christoph Sandholzer, Gerd Utermann, Hans Dieplinger, L.B. Hilbrands, P.N.M. Demacker, A.J. Hoitsma, Ashley Irish, A. Segarra, P. Chacón, M. Vilardell, L.L. Piera, A.T. Webb, E.A. Brown
Journal: The Lancet (1993)
The African Health Observatory and national health observatories as platforms for strengthening health information systems in sub-Saharan Africa
Authors: Derege Kebede, Chris Zielinski, Peter Ebongue Mbondji, Miguel Piexoto, Wenceslas Kouvividila, Luis Gomes Sambo
Journal: Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine (2014)

Health information systems represent a key component of national health systems. However, the capabilities for leveraging information for improved health are limited and unevenly distributed in the World Health Organization (WHO) African Region. Improving such capabilities has been identified as a key priority for the success of reforms of national health systems through primary healthcare and for addressing social determinants of health. Ministries of health and their partners have recognised the importance of evidence in shaping policymaking and decision-making in the Region and have been trying to improve their health information and research systems for some time. The recommendations of both the 2008 Ouagadougou and Algiers Declarations to establish an African Health Observatory (AHO) are based on this recognition. The idea of a ‘health observatory’ as a comprehensive one-stop shop for good-quality and reliable information on human health and institutions of care has gained growing global popularity since the mid-1970s. Since then, numerous health observatories have been established throughout the world; for example, a network of 12 public health observatories was set up by the UK Department of Health to provide knowledge, information and surveillance in public health. The declared focus is on ‘turning information and data into meaningful health intelligence’ and the UK network has been developing successfully using a similar model to that adopted by AHO. Apart from AHO, a Global Health Observatory has been functioning in WHO headquarters since 2010, andmost of theWHO regional offices also have established observatories. This report describes AHO and how it could be useful, working with National Health Observatories (NHO), to address the issues and challenges of strengthening national health information systems. In addition, the report proposes a number of actions that countries should consider taking to use NHOs to improve national health systems.
Noninvasive Assessment of the Diabetic Patient for Coronary Artery Disease
Authors: Silvio E. Inzucchi
Journal: Diabetes Care (2001)

Type 2 diabetes has been referred to as “a cardiovascular disease associated with hyperglycemia” (1). Such inversion of traditional terminology stems, in part, from the extraordinary frequency with which heart disease occurs in this condition. Cardiovascular diseases are indeed responsible for 65% of deaths in diabetic patients, the great majority of whom have type 2 diabetes (2). The Framingham Study (3) long ago demonstrated that diabetic individuals had a two- to fivefold increased risk of developing angina, myocardial infarction, and congestive heart failure. When individuals  11-fold that of the general population (4). We recognize the link between diabetes and ischemic heart disease (IHD) on a daily basis in clinical practice, and it has been repeatedly demonstrated in a number of other epidemiological analyses (5,6,7). Even when the diabetic patient comes under appropriate medical care for vascular disease, outcomes are poorer than those of nondiabetic individuals. Specifically, mortality statistics after myocardial infarction (8) or even after revascularization procedures (9) are increased in the setting of preexisting diabetes. In addition to the obvious human costs, health care expenditures related to premature atherosclerosis are considerable, particularly when the additional costs of disability and lost productivity are calculated (4).

The cause of the macrovasculopathy of diabetes becomes apparent when one considers the deleterious effects of the hyperglycemic milieu, such as protein glycosylation, increased oxidative stress, endothelial dysfunction, and an underlying procoagulant state. In type 2 diabetes, these processes conspire with additional cardiovascular risk factors associated with the metabolic syndrome: obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, hyperinsulinemia, decreased fibrinolysis, and further endothelial abnormalities.

Offsetting this otherwise sobering picture are recent advances in cardiovascular risk reduction in patients with diabetes. A broad range of clinical trials, for instance, have unequivocally …
Tyrosine kinase inhibitor use in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
Authors: Alan G Dawson
Journal: Thorax (2011)

This randomised, multicentre, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial evaluated the efficacy and safety of four different doses of BIBF 1120, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, in order to investigate its effect on progression of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).

The annual rate of decline in forced vital capacity (FVC), the primary end-point of this study, in the highest dose subgroup compared …
Competing Causes of Death From a Randomized Trial of Extended Adjuvant Endocrine Therapy for Breast Cancer
Authors: J.-A. W. Chapman, D. Meng, L. Shepherd, W. Parulekar, J. N. Ingle, H. B. Muss, M. Palmer, C. Yu, P. E. Goss
Journal: JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute (2008)

Older women with early-stage breast cancer experience higher rates of non–breast cancer-related death. We examined factors associated with cause-specific death in a large cohort of breast cancer patients treated with extended adjuvant endocrine therapy. In the MA.17 trial, conducted by the National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group, 5170 breast cancer patients (median age = 62 years; range = 32–94 years) who were disease free after approximately 5 years of adjuvant tamoxifen treatment were randomly assigned to treatment with letrozole (2583 women) or placebo (2587 women). The median follow-up was 3.9 years (range0–7 years). We investigated the association of 11 baseline factors with the competing risks of death from breast cancer, other malignancies, and other causes. All statistical tests were two-sided likelihood ratio criterion tests. During follow-up, 256 deaths were reported (102 from breast cancer, 50 from other malignancies, 100 from other causes, and four from an unknown cause). Non–breast cancer deaths accounted for 60% of the 252 known deaths (72% for those ≥70 years and 48% for those <70 years). Two baseline factors were differentially associated with type of death: cardiovascular disease was associated with a statistically significant increased risk of death from other causes ( P .002), and osteoporosis was associated with a statistically significant increased risk of death from other malignancies ( P .05). An increased risk of breast cancer–specific death was associated with lymph node involvement ( P < .001). Increased risk of death from all three causes was associated with older age ( P < .001). Non–breast cancer-related deaths were more common than breast cancer–specific deaths in this cohort of 5-year breast cancer survivors, especially among older women.
Life out of balance: The sympathetic nervous system and cardiac arrhythmias
Authors: R Gilmour
Journal: Cardiovascular Research (2001)

See article by Sosunov et al. [1] (pages 659–669) in this issue. 

That the sympathetic nervous system has profound and recurrent effects on cardiac electrical activity has been an article of faith (amply supported by fact) for decades. However, our understanding of the role of sympathetic activity in the development of cardiac arrhythmias remains fragmented. In this issue of the journal, Sosunov and co-workers contribute an important piece to this puzzle [1]. They present a conceptually straightforward and technically demanding series of experiments that asks the question ‘what are the electrophysiological consequences of right stellectomy in the dog?’. In the process of answering that question, they have uncovered several interesting consequences of this type of denervation. However, they have also, as one might hope with any worthwhile study, raised more questions than they have answered.

One of the more intriguing unanswered questions relates to potential roles for the sympathetic nervous system in the development of ventricular arrhythmias in patients afflicted with the long QT syndrome (LQTS). In a recent editorial, Peter Schwartz revisited, with some circumspection, the now all but abandoned terrain of the ‘sympathetic imbalance’ hypothesis for that syndrome [2]. In his review of the theory, he …
Comparison of ulcerative colitis surveillance strategies. an analysis of cost-effectiveness
Authors: J. Landy, A. Ignjatovic, S. Thomas-Gibson, A. Hart, B. Saunders
Journal: Gut (2011)

<h3>Introduction</h3> The latest (2010) British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG) guidelines on colonoscopic surveillance in colitis (1) propose surveillance intervals based on risk of dysplasia determined by endoscopic and histological findings using pan-colonic chromoendoscopy. The 2010 surveillance strategy is projected to be significantly more cost-effective than previous BSG guidelines (2002). Our unit employs a two-tiered strategy using high-risk features including and additional to those of the BSG 2010 guidelines. We aim to compare the different surveillance guidelines (BSG 2002, BSG 2010 and two tier strategy) with respect to cost of surveillance and detection of endoscopically visible dysplasia. <h3>Methods</h3> Patients who had a surveillance colonoscopy for colitis between 2003 and 2008 and had an endoscopic resection of a dysplastic lesion were identified from the endoscopic database. Colonoscopy and histopathology reports and clinical notes were reviewed. Surveillance intervals, based on the findings of predysplasia colonoscopy, were predicted using each of the three strategies. The cost of colonoscopy was based on national tariff cost of £476. If the colonoscopy at which dysplasia was detected was within the predicted surveillance interval, the surveillance strategy was deemed to have been successful at detecting dysplasia. <h3>Results</h3> Twenty-six patients meeting inclusion criteria were identified. 16 (60%) patients were male. The median age was 66 years (IQR 47–70 years) and the median duration of disease 23 years (IQR 17–33 years). The calculated cost of surveillance per year for the 26 patients was £7933 for BSG 2002 guidelines, £5522.6 for BSG 2010 guidelines and £11 107 for two-tiered strategy. Using BSG 2002 guidelines, 22 of 26 patients (85%) would have a surveillance colonoscopy that would have detected dysplasia, 12 of 26 (46%) according to BSG 2010 guidelines and 24 of 26 patients (92%) according to two-tiered strategy. <h3>Conclusion</h3> BSG 2010 guidelines are less costly than BSG 2002 guidelines and two-tiered strategy. However, using the surveillance intervals based on BSG 2010 guidelines would not have detected as many patients with dysplasia as BSG 2002 guidelines or two-tiered strategy. However, as the outcome of low-grade dysplasia in colitis is not certain, it is unclear whether that would have altered patient outcomes. Prospective audit of patient outcomes using 2010 surveillance intervals is needed to assess the effect of delayed detection of dysplastic lesions in ulcerative colitis.
Genomic advances and their impact on clinical trial design
Authors: Sumithra J Mandrekar, Daniel J Sargent
Journal: Genome Medicine (2009)

Medical treatment for patients has historically been based on two primary elements: the expected outcome for the patient, and the ability of treatment to improve the expected outcome. The advance in genomic technologies has the potential to change this paradigm and add substantial value to current medical practice by providing an integrated approach to guide patient-specific treatment selection using the genetic make-up of the disease and the genotype of the patient. Specifically, genomic signatures can aid in patient stratification (risk assessment), treatment response identification (surrogate markers), and/or in differential diagnosis (identifying who is likely to respond to which drug(s)). Several critical issues, including scientific rationale, clinical trial design, marker assessment methods, cost and feasibility have to be carefully considered in the validation of biomarkers through clinical research before they can be routinely integrated into clinical practice. Here, we highlight the impact of genomic advances on various aspects of clinical trial design.
506 ALISPORIVIR-INDUCED INHIBITION OF CELLULAR CYCLOPHILINS DISRUPTS HEPATITIS B VIRUS (HBV) REPLICATION IN VITRO AND IS SYNERGISTIC IN COMBINATION WITH DIRECT ANTIVIRAL TARGETING HBV-DNA POLYMERASE
Authors: S. Phillips, S. Chokshi, A. Riva, N.V. Naoumov
Journal: Journal of Hepatology (2012)
Osteomyelitis caused by Aspergillus species: a review of 310 reported cases
Authors: E. Gabrielli, A.W. Fothergill, L. Brescini, D.A. Sutton, E. Marchionni, E. Orsetti, S. Staffolani, P. Castelli, R. Gesuita, F. Barchiesi
Journal: Clinical Microbiology and Infection (2013)