| 1. |
- Sokka, T., et al.
(författare)
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Disparities in rheumatoid arthritis disease activity according to gross domestic product in 25 countries in the QUEST-RA database
- 2009
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Ingår i: Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. - : BMJ. - 0003-4967 .- 1468-2060. ; 68:11, s. 1666-1672
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objective: To analyse associations between the clinical status of patients with rheumatoid arthritis ( RA) and the gross domestic product (GDP) of their resident country. Methods: The Quantitative Standard Monitoring of Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (QUEST-RA) cohort includes clinical and questionnaire data from 6004 patients who were seen in usual care at 70 rheumatology clinics in 25 countries as of April 2008, including 18 European countries. Demographic variables, clinical characteristics, RA disease activity measures, including the disease activity score in 28 joints (DAS28), and treatment-related variables were analysed according to GDP per capita, including 14 "high GDP'' countries with GDP per capita greater than US$ 24 000 and 11 "low GDP'' countries with GDP per capita less than US$ 11 000. Results: Disease activity DAS28 ranged between 3.1 and 6.0 among the 25 countries and was significantly associated with GDP (r = -0.78, 95% CI -0.56 to -0.90, r(2) = 61%). Disease activity levels differed substantially between "high GDP'' and "low GDP'' countries at much greater levels than according to whether patients were currently taking or not taking methotrexate, prednisone and/or biological agents. Conclusions: The clinical status of patients with RA was correlated significantly with GDP among 25 mostly European countries according to all disease measures, associated only modestly with the current use of antirheumatic medications. The burden of arthritis appears substantially greater in "low GDP'' than in "high GDP'' countries. These findings may alert healthcare professionals and designers of health policy towards improving the clinical status of patients with RA in all countries.
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| 2. |
- Aguer, P, et al.
(författare)
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Skin morphology and layer identification using different STIM geometries
- 2005
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Ingår i: Nuclear Instruments & Methods in Physics Research. Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms. - : Elsevier BV. - 0168-583X. ; 231:1-4, s. 292-299
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The use of on-axis geometry in scanning transmission ion microscopy (STIM) has been widely used for thin biological sample structure identification. In this configuration, the lateral resolution is optimised so that micron or submicron beam spots are easily achieved even for classic microbeam lines. Off-axis STIM was more particularly employed for rapid imaging, and also (when associated to a scattering set-up) for normalising elemental contents obtained by other ion beam analysis techniques in organic thin samples. Due to the very small beam current required, on-axis STIM is a stand-alone technique. Off-axis STIM can be advantageous as it enables the simultaneous utilisation of PIXE and RBS techniques. In this paper, the STIM images obtained with an on-axis geometry, a standard off-axis geometry and a recently developed on-off geometry are presented and discussed. Data from skin samples are used for comparison purposes aiming at studying skin permeability to sunscreens. Skin is a stratified tissue and the precise identification of skin layers is needed to ascertain the penetration depth of the physical filter from the formulation. In addition to the intrinsic difference in image quality due to the beam resolution, the influence of the detector type, implanted silicon detector versus Si pin diode, is discussed on the basis of their energy resolution.. their resistance to beam damage as well as the effect
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| 3. |
- Pinheiro, AP, et al.
(författare)
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AKT1 and neurocognition in schizophrenia
- 2007
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Ingår i: The Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry. - : SAGE Publications. - 0004-8674 .- 1440-1614. ; 41:2, s. 169-177
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objective: Previous research has shown conflicting results for the significance of five v-akt murine thymoma viral oncogene homolog 1 ( AKT1) single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to the aetiology of schizophrenia. Neurocognition is a plausible endophenotype for schizophrenia and it was reasoned that the lack of agreement might be due to variability in neurocognition across studies. Therefore, the association of genetic variation in AKT1 with neurocognition was investigated in patients with schizophrenia. Methods: The same five SNPs used in previous studies of the etiology of schizophrenia (rs2494732, rs2498799, rs3730358, rs1130241, and rs3803300) were genotyped in 641 individuals with schizophrenia who had participated in the Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness (CATIE) project. The primary dependent variable was a neurocognitive composite score and exploratory analyses investigated five domain scores (processing speed, reasoning, verbal memory, working memory, and vigilance). Results: There were no significant asymptotic or empirical associations between any SNP and the neurocognitive composite score. The authors also investigated the association of five-SNP haplotypes with the neurocognitive composite score. A marginally significant association was observed for the neurocognitive composite score with one of the five-SNP haplotypes (global score statistic 19.51, df = 9, permutation p = 0.02). Exploratory analyses of five domain scores (processing speed, reasoning, verbal memory, working memory, and vigilance) were non-significant for all five SNPs. Conclusion: Results published to date for an association between genetic variation in AKT1 with schizophrenia are inconsistent. The results suggest that the AKT1 markers studied are not associated with neurocognition in schizophrenia, and do not support unassessed variation in neurocognitive scores as a reason for this discrepancy.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Pinheiro, T., et al.
(författare)
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The influence of corneocyte structure on the interpretation of permeation profiles of nanoparticles across skin
- 2007
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Ingår i: Nuclear Instruments & Methods in Physics Research. Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms. - : Elsevier BV. - 0168-583X. ; 260:1, s. 119-123
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The permeability of skin to nanoparticles of titanium dioxide (TiO2) used in sunscreens as a reflector of the UV wavelengths of sunlight, was examined using nuclear microscopy techniques. Special attention was given to the permeation characteristics of these nanoparticles across the outer layers of skin, the stratum corneum, in healthy and psoriatic skin condition. Aspects that may influence the interpretation of results such as sample preparation difficulties and skin condition were focused. Sample preparation can damage the integrity of the corneocyte layers inducing unwanted artefacts that may bias the evaluation of results. Irradiation conditions may also introduce distortions in the labile structures of human skin. Skin condition, such as loss of corneocyte cohesion occurring in psoriasis also influence the permeation profile of the nanoparticles. Weighing and accounting for these features in the examination of skin by nuclear microscopy is crucial to accurately assess the TiO2 nanoparticles permeation depth. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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