Adv Exp Med Biol
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Sepsis is an infectious condition that results in damage to organs. This paper proposes a severe sepsis model based on Support Vector Machine (SVM) for predicting whether a septic patient will become severe sepsis. ⋯ The results show that the prognosis of a septic patient can be more precisely predicted than ever. We conduct several experiments, whose results demonstrate that the proposed model provides high accuracy and high sensitivity and can be used as a reminding system to provide in-time treatment in ICU.
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Pulmonary Hypertension is a severe lung disease, which is characterized by vasoconstriction and remodelling of the vessel wall. Mostly addressing the increased vascular tone, prostacyclin and its analogues, endothelin-receptor antagonists and phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors have been approved for treatment of PAH and represent the current therapeutic options. Mechanistically, these vasodilators decrease pulmonary vascular resistance and reduce thereby shear stress, which is a strong proliferative stimulus per se. ⋯ Mechanistically, increased proliferation, migration and a resistance to apoptosis of vascular cells represent key events in disease progression. In this context, tyrosine kinase inhibitors like imatinib have been shown to possess reverse remodelling potential in preclinical models of pulmonary hypertension by inducing apoptosis and blocking proliferation. This book chapter describes the role of the platelet derived growth factor (PDGF) receptor and its antagonists for treatment of pulmonary hypertension.
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One of the remarkable and unique aspects of the recent history of rare disease research has been the evolving role of patient advocacy groups and the collaborative partnership that exists among such groups and the scientists who study rare diseases, as well as the government officials charged with overseeing medical research and regulatory processes. This collaboration, which in many respects developed out of necessity on all sides, is unparalleled in other areas of medical research and product development. ⋯ Specific areas of interest include the adoption of the Orphan Drug Act in the U. S. in 1983 and subsequent similar legislation elsewhere in the world; the relationship of patient advocacy groups with government research funding and regulatory entities; the role of patient advocacy groups in seeking to "de-risk" orphan product development through initiatives such as facilitating patient registries and disease natural histories; the role of advocacy groups in ensuring that patients have access to treatments; and the increasing globalization of patient advocacy initiatives.
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Case reports are defined as the scientific documentation of a single clinical observation and have a time-honored and rich tradition in medicine and scientific publication. Case reports represent a relevant, timely, and important study design in advancing medical scientific knowledge especially of rare diseases. ⋯ In this chapter the author will review and summarize the debate around the scientific publication of case reports in the context of the study of rare diseases and will present a taxonomy that ideally will encourage further dialogue on the topic. Future research on the importance of case reports in advancing knowledge of rare diseases is recommended.
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The most important forms of brain injury in premature infants are partly caused by disturbances in cerebral autoregulation. As changes in cerebral intravascular oxygenation (HbD), regional cerebral oxygen saturation (rSO(2)), and cerebral tissue oxygenation (TOI) reflect changes in cerebral blood flow (CBF), impaired autoregulation can be measured by studying the concordance between HbD/rSO(2)/TOI and the mean arterial blood pressure (MABP), assuming no changes in oxygen consumption, arterial oxygen saturation (SaO(2)), and in blood volume. ⋯ We started from long-term recordings measured in the first days of life simultaneously in 30 infants from three medical centres. We then compared the COH and PCOH results with patient clinical characteristics and outcomes, and concluded that PCOH might be a better method for assessing impaired autoregulation.