OBJECTIVES To study the efficacy and safety of monthly intravenous pulse cyclophosphamide (IVCYC) therapy for progressive interstitial pneumonia in polymyositis/dermatomyositis (PM/DM). METHODS Seventeen patients with PM/DM/amyopathic DM (mean age 51.4 +/- 10.4, mean follow-up 32 months) who received IVCYC for progressive interstitial pneumonia between August 1993 and October 2002 were studie...

OBJECTIVES Little is known regarding the amount of time spent by unpaid caregivers providing help to elderly individuals for disabilities associated with diabetes mellitus (DM). We sought to obtain nationally representative estimates of the time, and associated cost, of informal caregiving provided to elderly individuals with diabetes, and to determine the complications of DM that contribute mo...

There seems to be something in the air: democratic societies around the world have had a rough time recently. Some, such as Turkey, Hungary and Poland, appear to be moving towards what Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, calls an “illiberal democracy,” soft authoritarianism veiled in the trappings of traditional democracies. The United Kingdom votes to Brexit from the European Union, leadin...

OBJECTIVE To estimate mortality from diabetes mellitus (DM) for the period 2001-2011 in the Republic of Panama, by province/indigenous territory, and determine its relationship with biological and socioeconomic risk factors. METHODS Cases for the years 2001-2011 with DM listed as the principal cause of death were selected from Panama's National Mortality Registry. Crude and adjusted mortality...

....................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgments ....................................................................................................... ix Table of contents .......................................................................................................xiii List of tables ..............

Design Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue microarrays (TMAs) consisting of malignant and metastatic melanoma, including SCM and DM (n = 72), were stained by immunohistochemistry and compared in a direct study using a mouse monoclonal SOX10 [BC34] (nuclear), a Pan Melanoma antibody cocktail (cytoplasmic) (Biocare Medical) and a polyclonal S100 antibody (cytoplasmic/ nuclear) (Dako). TMA ti...

Given positive integers m, k and s with m > ks, let Dm,k,s represent the set {1, 2, · · · ,m} − {k, 2k, · · · , sk}. The distance graph G(Z,Dm,k,s) has as vertex set all integers Z and edges connecting i and j whenever |i − j| ∈ Dm,k,s. The chromatic number and the fractional chromatic number of G(Z,Dm,k,s) are denoted by χ(Z,Dm,k,s) and χf (Z,Dm,k,s), respectively. For s = 1, χ(Z,Dm,k,1) was s...

.................................................................................................................................. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................ iv INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................................

Background Patients with inflammatory rheumatic disease, while receiving highly effective disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, are still referred to multidisciplinary rehabilitation in specialised centres. Although only have small and short-term improvements patients’ outcome, it could benefit patients specific disability needs, indicating a more complicated disease [1]. Objectives In order i...