Minerva medica
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Multicenter Study
Implementation of a real-world based ICF set for the rehabilitation of respiratory diseases: a pilot study.
International Classification Functioning (ICF) Core Sets represent a holistic approach to functioning within rehabilitation field. Information-reporting efficacy of a rehabilitation-based Respiratory ICF set applied on a large scale throughout the ICS Maugeri network was tested. ⋯ Routine use of a Respiratory ICF set for chronic respiratory diseases helps to prepare a personalized rehabilitation program discriminating disability level in different respiratory diseases and assessing disability outcomes pre-post rehabilitation.
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Comparative Study
Noninvasive assessment of liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C virus patients compared to liver biopsy: the experience of tertiary level hospital in Serbia.
Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, that is defined by active carriage of HCV RNA in the blood, is represents one of the major public health problems worldwide. In Serbia, the prevalence of anti-HCV positive persons in the general population, is estimated on average 1.13%. ⋯ Noninvasive liver fibrosis scores are efficient tools in the management and follow-up of HCV patients in clinical practice.
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Despite therapeutic advances, chronic heart failure (CHF)-related mortality and hospitalization is still unacceptably high. Evidence shows that muscular wasting, sarcopenia, cachexia are independent predictors of mortality and morbidity in CHF and are signs of protein metabolism disarrangement (PMD), which involve all body proteins including circulating one. We postulate that circulating human serum albumin (HSA) could be a marker of PMD and catabolic low-grade inflammation (LGI) in CHF patients. ⋯ HSA could be considered a simple marker of PMD and LGI in CHF patients. Evaluation of PMD and gender differences should be considered in new CHF clinical trials.
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Interferon signature (IS) is the measure of transcripts belonging to pathways of interferon activation. Viral infections can interfere with the interferon pathway, in particular herpesvirus present in immunocompromised hosts. The aim of our study was to evaluate if herpesvirus infections in immunocompromised patients with lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) could lead to IS alterations. ⋯ The continuous stimulation of interferon cascade by herpesviruses enhances IS. The analysis of IS in immunocompromised population is possible by limiting the use of IFI27, IFIT1, ISG15 genes. Our preliminary results seem to indicate that IS is a useful biomarker of cellular response to herpesvirus infection in immunocompromised patients.