| 1. |
- Aust, Birgit, et al.
(författare)
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The Danish national return-to-work program - aims, content, and design of the process and effect evaluation
- 2012
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Ingår i: Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health. - : Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health. - 0355-3140 .- 1795-990X. ; 38:2, s. 120-133
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Danish national return-to-work (RTW) program aims to improve the management of municipal sickness benefit in Denmark. A study is currently ongoing to evaluate the RTW program. The purpose of this article is to describe the study protocol. The program includes 21 municipalities encompassing approximately 19 500 working-age adults on long-term sickness absence, regardless of reason for sickness absence or employment status. It consists of three core elements: (i) establishment of multidisciplinary RTW teams, (ii) introduction of standardized workability assessments and sickness absence management procedures, and (iii) a comprehensive training course for the RTW teams. The effect evaluation is based on a parallel group randomized trial and a stratified cluster-controlled trial and focuses on register-based primary outcomes-duration of sickness absence and RTW and questionnaire-based secondary outcomes such as health and workability. The process evaluation utilizes questionnaires, interviews, and municipal data. The effect evaluation tests whether participants in the intervention have a (i) shorter duration of full-time sickness absence, (ii) longer time until recurrent long-term sickness absence, (iii) faster full RTW, (iv) more positive development in health, workability, pain, and sleep; it also tests whether the program is (v) cost-effective. The process evaluation investigates: (i) whether the expected target population is reached; (ii) if the program is implemented as intended; (iii) how the beneficiaries, the RTW teams, and the external stakeholders experience the program; and (iv) whether contextual factors influenced the implementation. The program has the potential to contribute markedly to lowering human and economic costs and increasing labor force supply. First results will be available in 2013. The trial registrations are ISRCTN43004323, and ISRCTN51445682.
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| 2. |
- Akimoto, Chizuru, et al.
(författare)
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No GGGGCC-hexanucleotide repeat expansion in C9ORF72 in parkinsonism patients in Sweden
- 2013
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Ingår i: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Frontotemporal Degeneration. - : Informa Healthcare. - 2167-8421 .- 2167-9223. ; 14:1, s. 26-29
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- An intronic GGGGCC-hexanucleotide repeat expansion in C9ORF72 was recently identified as a major cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia. Some amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients have signs of parkinsonism, and many parkinsonism patients develop dementia. In this study we examined if the hexanucleotide repeat expansion was present in parkinsonism patients, to clarify if there could be a relationship between the repeat expansion and disease. We studied the size of the hexanucleotide repeat expansion in a well defined population-based cohort of 135 Parkinson's disease patients and 39 patients with atypical parkinsonism and compared with 645 Swedish control subjects. We found no correlation between Parkinson's disease or atypical parkinsonism and the size of the GGGGCC repeat expansion in C9ORF72. In conclusion, this GGGGCC-repeat expansion in C9ORF72 is not a cause of parkinsonism in the Swedish population.
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| 3. |
- Lundberg, Mathias, et al.
(författare)
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Methodological Aspects of ELISA Analysis of Thioredoxin 1 in Human Plasma and Cerebrospinal Fluid
- 2014
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 9:7, s. e103554-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Thioredoxin-1 (Trx1) is a protein antioxidant involved in major cellular processes. Increased plasma levels of Trx1 have been associated with human diseases suggesting that Trx1 is a marker for oxidative stress with putative clinical use. However, the reported mean levels of Trx1 in the control cohorts vary a hundred-fold between studies (0.8-87 ng/ml), possibly due to methodological differences between the capture ELISA used in the different studies. The aim of this study was to investigate methodological aspects related to the ELISA measurement of Trx1. ELISAs utilizing different capture and detection combinations of antibodies to Trx1 and as well as recombinant human (rh) Trx1 standards from two sources were characterized. The different ELISAs were subsequently used to measure Trx1 in human plasma and cerebrospinal fluid samples (CSF) from healthy donors and from patients with various neurological diagnoses. The Trx1 standards differed in their content of monomeric and oligomeric Trx1, which affected the ELISAs composed of different antibody combinations. Thus, the levels of Trx1 determined in human plasma and CSF samples varied depending on the antibody used in the ELISAs and on the rhTrx1 standard. Furthermore, the relevance of preventing interference by heterophilic antibodies (HA) in human plasma and CSF was investigated. The addition of a HA blocking buffer to human samples drastically reduced the ELISA signals in many samples showing that HA are likely to cause false positive results unless they are blocked. In conclusion, the study shows that the design of a Trx1 ELISA in regards to antibodies and standards used has an impact on the measured Trx1 levels. Importantly, analyses of human plasma and CSF without preventing HA interference may obscure the obtained data. Overall, the results of this study are crucial for the improvement of future studies on the association of Trx1 levels with various diseases.
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