The aim of this study was to evaluate phalangeal bone quantitative ultrasound (QUS) parameters in patients with Raynaud phenomenon (RP) and relate it with nailfold capillaroscopy findings. Patients referring to our Rheumatology Unit with RP were enrolled and studied for capillaroscopy alterations; bone quality profile was measured by QUS of the phalanxes: AD-SoS (Amplitude Dependent Speed of So...

OBJECTIVES This study is a prospective randomized trial investigating clinical outcomes of patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) treated with abciximab (ReoPro)-coated stents. BACKGROUND Recently we have demonstrated that abciximab-coated stents have inhibitory effects in the prevention of coronary restenosis. METHODS Ninety-six patients with AMI were randomly allocated into two g...

PURPOSE To investigate the neuroprotective effects of Sulindac on the hippocampal complex after global cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in rats. METHODS Thirty one Sprague-Dawley rats were used, distributed into group I (sham) n:7 were used as control. For group II (n:8), III (n:8) and IV (n:8) rats, cerebral ischemia was performed via the occlusion of bilateral internal carotid art...

PURPOSE Zona thinning (ZT) is a technique used to improve pregnancy rates among patients > or = 38 years old and/or patients presenting previous implantation failure. The objective of the study was to determine whether ZT has a beneficial effect on patients younger than 37 years who are undergoing the first ICSI attempt. METHODS A total of 103 patients submitted to ICSI for the first time and...

in this paper we enumerate fuzzy subgroups, up to a natural equivalence, of some finite abelian p-groups of rank two where p is any prime number. after obtaining the number of maximal chains of subgroups, we count fuzzy subgroups using inductive arguments. the number of such fuzzy subgroups forms a polynomial in p with pleasing combinatorial coefficients. by exploiting the order, we label the s...

Many common finite p-groups admit automorphisms of order coprime to p, and when p is odd, it is reasonably difficult to find finite p-groups whose automorphism group is a p-group. Yet the goal of this paper is to prove that the automorphism group of a finite p-group is almost always a p-group. The asymptotics in our theorem involve fixing any two of the following parameters and letting the thir...

We propose a quantization of the Painlevé system of type A (1) l studied by M. Noumi and Y. Yamada [13]. This quantization has the affine Weyl group symmetry of type A (1) l (l ≥ 2) as well as the Lax representation. For even l, the quantized system of type A (1) l can be obtained as the continuous limit of the discrete system constructed from the affine Weyl group symmetry of type A (1) l+1 .

BACKGROUND To evaluate the effect of higher post-operative valve gradient on freedom from valve re-intervention and death in patients undergoing aortic valve repair (AVr). METHODS Patients who underwent AVr between March 1996 and June 2010 were divided into 2 groups: I: peak gradient (PG) <20 mmHg (n=358) and II: PG ≥20 mmHg (n=113). Age (53.6±16.0 vs. 50.6±16.4 years; P=0.08), impaired LV (n...

background pegylated interferon alfa plus ribavirin protocol is currently considered the most efficient hepatitis c treatment. however, no evidence of costs comparison among common viral genotypes has been published. objectives we aimed to assess core drivers of hepatitis c medical care costs and compare cost effectiveness of this treatment among patients infected by hepatitis c virus with geno...