Our objective was to analyse the relationship between circulating cytokines, autoantibodies, acute phase reactants, and disease activity in DMARDs-naïve rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients (n = 140). All cytokines were significantly higher in the RA cohort than in healthy controls. Moderate-to-strong positive intercorrelations were observed between Th1/Th2/macrophage/fibroblast-derived cytokines...

OBJECTIVE Provide explicit expert-based consensus recommendations for the management of adults with primary and secondary spontaneous pneumothoraces in an emergency department and inpatient hospital setting. The use of opinion was made explicit by employing a structured questionnaire, appropriateness scores, and consensus scores with a Delphi technique. The guideline was designed to be relevant...

The American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) previously published position statements on collaborative drug therapy management (CDTM) in 1997 and 2003. Since 2003, significant federal and state legislation addressing CDTM has evolved and expanded throughout the United States. CDTM is well suited to facilitate the delivery of comprehensive medication management (CMM) by clinical pharmacists....

RATIONALE Annual low-radiation-dose computed tomography (LDCT) screening for lung cancer has been shown to reduce lung cancer mortality among high-risk individuals and is now recommended by multiple organizations. However, LDCT screening is complex, and implementation requires careful planning to ensure benefits outweigh harms. Little guidance has been provided for sites wishing to develop and ...

The Alliance for Cervical Cancer Prevention (ACCP) came together in 1999 to answer key research questions and to advocate for greater global and national interest in reducing the heavy burden of morbidity and mortality caused by this preventable disease. Visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA), visual inspection with Lugol's iodine (VILI), and human papillomavirus (HPV) tests have been shown t...

BACKGROUND Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) has become an important modality for the evaluation and management of patients with a diverse array of medical problems. However, interpreting these tests is often difficult and time consuming, requiring significant expertise. METHODS We created a computer software program (XINT) that assists in CPET interpretation. The program uses an integr...

Objective: To determine the effect on the humoral immune system of long term treatment of patients with RA with etanercept. Methods: 12 consecutive patients with seropositive RA treated with etanercept were studied and followed up for 9 months. Clinical efficacy of treatment was evaluated using the 28 joint count Disease Activity Score (DAS28). Serum samples were collected at baseline and after...

! " # $ %!& $ ! ' )( * ! +*%, $ ./ 10 2 *" 3 &4&* 5 6 , % ! 64& ! *7 ! * 8 % . ! ," 9 '* , : ) ! ' ;%, '! < =*>! * ? @ , AB! * $ %!?4& ! *C % " " AD > ! "EGFH, < ) !? ? I J !@4H 6 ) ! KH L6 C $ M N9 O EQP2 < R S ) ! H* ) B $ 1!@O T#* 5 @ U ! ) 1 ) V $ ?4H W * W < ! B ! V! R %! ' , 1 X -! * % % < %! E+P2 ' O ) ?! X* W *%O% 1 2 % $ $ <! Y @ 3O(%. G *" 3 E:ZQ C A[O\! * XA[ $!R AW! * 7 ] $ , 6 G! *...

A sequence of positive integers w1, w2, . . . , wn is called an ascending wave if wi+1 − wi ≥ wi − wi−1 for 2 ≤ i ≤ n − 1. For integers k, r ≥ 1, let AW (k; r) be the least positive integer such that under any r-coloring of [1, AW (k; r)] there exists a k-term monochromatic ascending wave. The existence of AW (k; r) is guaranteed by van der Waerden’s theorem on arithmetic progressions since an ...

Frequent sub-graph mining entails two significant overheads. The first is concerned with candidate set generation. The second with isomorphism checking. These are also issues with respect to other forms of frequent pattern mining but are exacerbated in the context of frequent sub-graph mining. To reduced the search space, and address these twin overheads, a weighted approach to sub-graph mining...