We report the experimental results of a prototype balance for the Archimedes experiment, devoted to measure the interaction between quantum vacuum energy and gravity. The prototype is a
beam balance
...working at room temperature which shares with the final balance several mechanical and optical components. The balance sensitivity has been tested at the site of the Virgo gravitational wave detector in order to benefit from its quiet environment and control facilities. This allowed also the test of the coherence of the balance data with the Virgo interferometer signal and with the environmental data. In the low-frequency regime, the balance has shown a sensitivity of about
8
×
10
-
12
Nm
/
Hz
, which is among the best in the world, and it is very promising toward the final Archimedes measurement. In the high-frequency region, above a few Hz, relying on the behavior of the balance as a rotational sensor, the ground tilt has been measured in view of the next work devoted to Newtonian noise subtraction (NNS) in Virgo. The measured ground tilt reaches a minimum of about
8
×
10
-
11
rad
/
Hz
in the few Hz region and ranges from
10
-
10
to
10
-
9
rad
/
Hz
in the 10–20 Hz region, where a very interesting coherence, at some frequencies, with the Virgo interferometer signal is shown.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Abstract Introduction Two hundred ten patients with newly diagnosed Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) were consecutively enrolled in this prospective trial to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of fluorine-18 (18 ...F)-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose–positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) scan in initial staging of patients with HL. Methods All 210 patients were staged with conventional clinical staging (CCS) methods, including computed tomography (CT), bone marrow biopsy (BMB), and laboratory tests. Patients were also submitted to metabolic staging (MS) with whole-body FDG-PET scan before the beginning of treatment. A standard of reference for staging was determined with all staging procedures, histologic examination, and follow-up examinations. The accuracy of the CCS was compared with the MS. Local unit costs of procedures and tests were evaluated. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) was calculated for both strategies. Results In the 210 patients with HL, the sensitivity for initial staging of FDG-PET was higher than that of CT and BMB in initial staging (97.9% vs. 87.3%; P < .001 and 94.2% vs. 71.4%, P < 0.003, respectively). The incorporation of FDG-PET in the staging procedure upstaged disease in 50 (24%) patients and downstaged disease in 17 (8%) patients. Changes in treatment would be seen in 32 (15%) patients. Cumulative cost for staging procedures was $3751/patient for CCS compared to $5081 for CCS + PET and $4588 for PET/CT. The ICER of PET/CT strategy was $16,215 per patient with modified treatment. PET/CT costs at the beginning and end of treatment would increase total costs of HL staging and first-line treatment by only 2%. Conclusion FDG-PET is more accurate than CT and BMB in HL staging. Given observed probabilities, FDG-PET is highly cost-effective in the public health care program in Brazil.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
We assessed associations between steroid receptors including: estrogen-alpha, estrogen-beta, androgen receptor, progesterone receptor, the HER2 status and triple-negative epithelial ovarian cancer ...(ERα-/PR-/HER2-; TNEOC) status and survival in women with epithelial ovarian cancer. The study included 152 women with primary epithelial ovarian cancer. The status of steroid receptor and HER2 was determined by immunohistochemistry. Disease-free and overall survival were calculated and compared with steroid receptor and HER2 status as well as clinicopathological features using the Cox Proportional Hazards model. A mean follow-up period of 43.6 months (interquartile range=41.4 months) was achieved where 44% of patients had serous tumor, followed by mucinous (23%), endometrioid (9%), mixed (9%), undifferentiated (8.5%) and clear cell tumors (5.3%). ER-alpha staining was associated with grade II–III tumors. Progesterone receptor staining was positively associated with a Body Mass Index≥25. Androgen receptor positivity was higher in serous tumors. In stand-alone analysis of receptor contribution to survival, estrogen-alpha positivity was associated with greater disease-free survival. However, there was no significant association between steroid receptor expression, HER2 status, or TNEOC status, and overall survival. Although estrogen-alpha, androgen receptor, progesterone receptor and the HER2 status were associated with key clinical features of the women and pathological characteristics of the tumors, these associations were not implicated in survival. Interestingly, women with TNEOC seem to fare the same way as their counterparts with non-TNEOC.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
A total of 53 patients aged 18-60 years with high-intermediate or high-risk diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) were evaluated to analyze the impact of the cell of origin. Of 53 patients, 16 ...underwent autologous SCT (ASCT) in first remission and the rest received conventional chemotherapy. Immunohistochemistry was evaluated in 47 cases: 17 were of germinal center (GC) origin and 30 were of non-GC origin. There was no survival difference between the two groups. Overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) at 3 years were 93 and 83%, respectively, for the 14 patients who underwent ASCT. Their DFS was significantly better than that of patients who achieved CR but did not undergo ASCT. We conclude that ASCT is safe and improves the DFS of high-intermediate and high-risk DLBCL, regardless of the cell of origin. This observation should be confirmed in a larger study.
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DOBA, EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
In this retrospective analysis we study the usefulness of bilateral rather than unilateral iliac trephine biopsies in demonstrating Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) in the bone marrow (BM). A ...total of 28 DLBCL cases with BM infiltration were investigated with bilateral iliac trephine biopsy during staging. Our propose was to evaluate the incidence of unilateral BM involvement, and we compare the BM biopsy size with negative and positive BM infiltration. In 28 cases studied it was analyzed 70 BM fragments. These fragments were reviewed separately by pathologist about size and infiltration. In this group, 6 cases (21.4%) were unilaterally positive. The median number of fragment per case was 2.5; the median size of BM fragment was 11.01 mm (± 5.12) and BM fragment per case was 27.53mm. It was not found difference between size BM fragment in negative or positive fragments 11,57mm (±5.2) versus 10.95mm (±5.1), p>0.05, respectively. In 24 cases it was possible to compare negative and positive BM infiltration with age, sex, LDH and computerized tomography (CT) staging. In addition, it was not found difference between unilateral and bilateral BM infiltration about LDH and age, and CT. (Table 1).
Conclusion: Although in unilateral infiltration cases did not change risk factor in International Prognostic Index (stage III–IV) by CT, we conclude that bilateral trephine biopsy is superior to unilateral, because bilateral biopsy could increase by 21,4% the detection of BM involvement by DLBCL, without difference between the size in negative versus positive fragments.
Table 1Distribution of Unilateral and Bilateral Bone Marrow infiltration by categoriesUnilateral infiltration (%)Bilateral infiltration (%)Age < 6021%50%Age ≥ 604%25%Sex Male16%29%Sex Female8%47%CT staging I–II-35%CT staging III–IV26%39%LDH Normal8%34%LDH Elevated16%42%
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
6.
Exogenous Ochronosis Bhattar, Prachi A; Zawar, Vijay P; Godse, Kiran V ...
Indian journal of dermatology,
11/2015, Volume:
60, Issue:
6
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Exogenous ochronosis (EO) is a cutaneous disorder characterized by blue-black pigmentation resulting as a complication of long-term application of skin-lightening creams containing hydroquinone but ...may also occur due to topical contact with phenol or resorcinol in dark-skinned individuals. It can also occur following the use of systemic antimalarials such as quinine. EO is clinically and histologically similar to its endogenous counterpart viz., alkaptonuria, which, however, exhibits systemic effects and is an inherited disorder. Dermoscopy and in vivo skin reflectance confocal microscopy are noninvasive in vivo diagnostic tools. It is very difficult to treat EO, a cosmetically disfiguring and troubling disorder with disappointing treatment options.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
O linfoma de Hodgkin (LH) é uma neoplasia do tecido linfóide de excelente prognóstico, porém, aproximadamente 15% dos pacientes em estádios precoces e 35% dos em estádios avançados progridem após o ...tratamento inicial. O transplante autólogo de medula óssea ou de células-tronco periféricas (ATMO) é o tratamento de escolha nesses casos. Nosso estudo tem como objetivo avaliar o tipo de tratamento utilizado, a taxa de resposta e a sobrevida de pacientes recidivados ou refratários ao ATMO. De 38 pacientes com LH submetidos a ATMO entre abril de 1996 e novembro de 2005, foram avaliados 17 que apresentaram recidiva/refratariedade ao ATMO. Nesses casos, o tratamento de resgate foi individualizado, a depender das condições clínicas de cada um, sendo constituído usualmente de drogas citotóxicas não utilizadas previamente. Após o ATMO, dez (59%) dos 17 pacientes obtiveram remissão completa, um (6%) remissão parcial e seis (35%) foram refratários. Em 14 dos 17 pacientes foi instituída quimioterapia de resgate com diversos esquemas no momento da recidiva/refratariedade após ATMO; um paciente foi tratado com radioterapia exclusiva e dois foram a óbito antes de qualquer terapia. Observamos uma taxa de resposta global de 57,4% (IC95%: 23,2 - 90,7%). A mediana da sobrevida livre de progressão foi de 19 meses e a mediana de sobrevida global foi de 32 meses. Apesar do LH recidivado/refratário ao ATMO não ser curável com os quimioterápicos atualmente disponíveis, os pacientes apresentaram longa sobrevida, com freqüentes exacerbações da doença.Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) is a lymphoid malignancy with excellent prognosis, however nearly 15% of the patients in early stages and 35% in advanced stages have progressive disease after initial treatment. Autologous bone marrow or hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (ABMT) are the treatments of choice in these cases. This report presents the therapeutic approach and the outcome of HL patients who experience relapse after or are refractory to ABMT. Of 38 patients with LH who underwent ABMT between April 1996 and November 2005, 17 presented with relapsed/refractory disease and were included in this analysis. In these cases, the choice of rescue therapy varied upon the clinical conditions of each patient and was based on previously unused chemotherapy agents. After ABMT, 10 (59%) of the 17 patients were in complete remission, one (6%) in partial remission and six (35%) were refractory. Fourteen of the 17 patients received different schemes of rescue therapy at the time of ABMT failure, one patient was treated exclusively with radiotherapy and two died before any treatment. We observed an overall response rate of 57.4% (95% CI: 23.2 - 90.7%). The median progression-free survival was 19 months and the median overall survival was 32 months. Despite ABTM, relapsed/refractory LH can not be cured with currently available chemotherapeutic agents, the patients had long survival times with frequent exacerbations of the diseas.
O linfoma de Hodgkin clássico (LHC) é uma neoplasia com distúrbio na produção de citocinas. Estudos demonstram que o padrão anormal das citocinas no linfonodo acometido pela lesão contribui não ...somente com a proliferação das células malignas H-RS, como também com o característico infiltrado hiper-reativo que compõe o tecido no LHC. Esta disfunção pode ser observada tanto no quadro clínico dos pacientes, como nas características histopatológicas: sintomas B, deficiência na resposta imune celular, bandas de colágeno e eosinofilia. As concentrações séricas das citocinas Th1 (IL-2, TNF, INF-γ) e Th2 (IL-4, IL-5, IL-10) foram estudadas em 45 pacientes com LHC, ao diagnóstico, e em 34 doadores saudáveis, por citometria de fluxo (CBA - cytometric beads array). Houve aumento das concentrações das citocinas TNF (p<0,01), INF-γ (p<0,01), IL-4 (p=0,01), IL-5 (p<0,01) e IL-10 (p<0,01) dos pacientes quando comparados com o grupo controle. Não foi evidenciada diferença em relação a IL-2. Ao correlacionarmos as concentrações das citocinas Th1/Th2 com as variáveis clínico-laboratoriais dos pacientes, observou-se que níveis elevados da IL-10 (Th2) estão correlacionados com as variáveis que implicam em pior prognóstico: estádios III/IV (p=0,01), presença de sintomas B (p=0,04), hemoglobina < 10,5g/dL (p=0+,01), linfócitos <600 mm³ (p=0,01) e, de acordo com o IPI, os pacientes de alto risco (p=0,01). Por outro lado, níveis séricos elevados da IL-2 (Th1) foram encontrados em estádio I/II, quando comparados com III/IV (p=0,03), o que indica que a IL-2 diminui com a progressão da doença. Os resultados sugerem que a IL-10 possa estar regulando negativamente a resposta imune citotóxica (Th1) pela inibição da IL-2. Há uma possível associação entre progressão da doença e níveis elevados da IL-10. Esse estudo evidenciou que a utilização do CBA é factível na detecção das citocinas, e que as alterações encontradas podem estar envolvidas na biologia do LHC.
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