Adjunct ketamine treatment of depression in treatment‐resistant schizophrenia patients is unsatisfactory in pilot and secondary follow‐up studies

Results of 606 equilibrium radionuclide ventriculographies (ERNV) performed in 348 non-selected patients receiving Adriamycin (ADM) therapy were stored in a data base system. The aim of the study was to assess the influence of a potential cardiotoxic therapy on left ventricular pump function. Increasing ADM doses yielded a significant (p <0.05) decrease of the resting ejection fraction (R-gEF), the peak ejection rate and the peak filling rate. Enddiastolic and endsystolic volumes increased significantly. Stroke volume, heart rate and time to peak filling rate did not change significantly. 368 follow-up studies were performed in 128 patients: 65/128 patients presented a decrease of R-gEF, but only in 45 of these patients R-gEF values fell into the pathologic range. In 44 of these follow-ups, R-gEF remained unchanged. In 19 patients, a R-gEF increase was observed. At the beginning of ADM therapy 14% of the patients had subnormal R-gEF values. With increasing ADM doses pathologic findings increased to 86% in patients with ADM doses higher than 500 mg/m2.

Download Full-text

Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of the Antimicrobial Natural Product Lipoxazolidinone A

10.26434/chemrxiv.6103607.v1 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Jonathan J. Mills ◽

Kaylib R. Robinson ◽

Troy E. Zehnder ◽

Joshua G. Pierce

Keyword(s):

Natural Products ◽

Natural Product ◽

Mechanism Of Action ◽

Marine Natural Products ◽

Biological Evaluation ◽

Lead Compounds ◽

Follow Up Studies ◽

Initial Resistance ◽

Synthesis And Biological Evaluation

The lipoxazolidinone family of marine natural products, with an unusual 4-oxazolidinone heterocycle at their core, represents a new scaffold for antimicrobial discovery; however, questions regarding their mechanism of action and high lipophilicity have likely slowed follow-up studies. Herein, we report the first synthesis of lipoxazolidinone A, 15 structural analogs to explore its active pharmacophore, and initial resistance and mechanism of action studies. These results suggest that 4-oxazolidinones are valuable scaffolds for antimicrobial development and reveal simplified lead compounds for further optimization.

Download Full-text

Stereotactic radiation treatment planning and follow-up studies involving fused multimodality imaging

Journal of Neurosurgery ◽

10.3171/sup.2004.101.supplement3.0326 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 101 (Supplement3) ◽

pp. 326-333 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Klaus D. Hamm ◽

Gunnar Surber ◽

Michael Schmücking ◽

Reinhard E. Wurm ◽

Rene Aschenbach ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Image Fusion ◽

Treatment Planning ◽

Radiation Treatment ◽

Data Sets ◽

Slice Thickness ◽

Radiation Treatment Planning ◽

Content Type ◽

Follow Up Studies ◽

Fine Print

Object. Innovative new software solutions may enable image fusion to produce the desired data superposition for precise target definition and follow-up studies in radiosurgery/stereotactic radiotherapy in patients with intracranial lesions. The aim is to integrate the anatomical and functional information completely into the radiation treatment planning and to achieve an exact comparison for follow-up examinations. Special conditions and advantages of BrainLAB's fully automatic image fusion system are evaluated and described for this purpose. Methods. In 458 patients, the radiation treatment planning and some follow-up studies were performed using an automatic image fusion technique involving the use of different imaging modalities. Each fusion was visually checked and corrected as necessary. The computerized tomography (CT) scans for radiation treatment planning (slice thickness 1.25 mm), as well as stereotactic angiography for arteriovenous malformations, were acquired using head fixation with stereotactic arc or, in the case of stereotactic radiotherapy, with a relocatable stereotactic mask. Different magnetic resonance (MR) imaging sequences (T1, T2, and fluid-attenuated inversion-recovery images) and positron emission tomography (PET) scans were obtained without head fixation. Fusion results and the effects on radiation treatment planning and follow-up studies were analyzed. The precision level of the results of the automatic fusion depended primarily on the image quality, especially the slice thickness and the field homogeneity when using MR images, as well as on patient movement during data acquisition. Fully automated image fusion of different MR, CT, and PET studies was performed for each patient. Only in a few cases was it necessary to correct the fusion manually after visual evaluation. These corrections were minor and did not materially affect treatment planning. High-quality fusion of thin slices of a region of interest with a complete head data set could be performed easily. The target volume for radiation treatment planning could be accurately delineated using multimodal information provided by CT, MR, angiography, and PET studies. The fusion of follow-up image data sets yielded results that could be successfully compared and quantitatively evaluated. Conclusions. Depending on the quality of the originally acquired image, automated image fusion can be a very valuable tool, allowing for fast (∼ 1–2 minute) and precise fusion of all relevant data sets. Fused multimodality imaging improves the target volume definition for radiation treatment planning. High-quality follow-up image data sets should be acquired for image fusion to provide exactly comparable slices and volumetric results that will contribute to quality contol.

Download Full-text

Experience with protein A-immunoadsorption in treatment-resistant adult immune thrombocytopenic purpura

Blood ◽

10.1182/blood.v79.9.2237.2237 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 79 (9) ◽

pp. 2237-2245 ◽

Cited By ~ 106

Author(s):

HW Snyder ◽

SK Cochran ◽

JP Balint ◽

JH Bertram ◽

A Mittelman ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Side Effects ◽

Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura ◽

Protein A ◽

Staphylococcal Protein A ◽

Treatment Resistant ◽

Thrombocytopenic Purpura ◽

Specific Serum ◽

Clinical Responses ◽

Acute Increase

Abstract Extracorporeal immunoadsorption of plasma to remove IgG and circulating immune complexes (CIC) was evaluated as a therapy for adults with treatment-resistant immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP). Seventy-two patients with initial platelet counts less than 50,000/microL who had failed at least two other therapies were studied. They received an average of six treatments of 0.25 to 2.0 L plasma per procedure over a 2- to 3-week period using columns of staphylococcal protein A-silica (PROSORBA immunoadsorption treatment columns; IMRE Corp, Seattle, WA). The treatments caused an acute increase in the platelet count to greater than 100,000/microL in 18 patients and to 50,000 to 100,000/microL in 15 patients. The median time to response was 2 weeks. Responses were transient (less than 1 month duration) in seven of those patients (10%), but no additional relapses were reported over a follow- up period of up to 26 months (mean of 8 months). Clinical responses were associated with significant decreases in specific serum platelet autoantibodies (including anti-glycoprotein IIb/IIIa), platelet- associated Ig, and CIC. Thirty percent of treatments were associated with transient mild to moderate side effects usually presenting as a hypersensitivity-type reaction. Continued administration of failed therapies for ITP, which always included low-dose corticosteroids (less than or equal to 30 mg/d), had no demonstrable influence on the effectiveness of immunoadsorption treatment but did depress the incidence and severity of side effects. The degree of effectiveness of protein A immunoadsorption therapy in patients with treatment-resistant ITP is promising and further controlled studies in this patient population are warranted.

Download Full-text

MAPPING AND ENHANCING DESIGN STUDIES WITH PSI META-THEORETIC DESIGN FRAMEWORK

Proceedings of the Design Society ◽

10.1017/pds.2021.462 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 1 ◽

pp. 2007-2016

Author(s):

Yoram Reich ◽

Eswaran Subrahmanian

Keyword(s):

Design Research ◽

The Other ◽

Design Studies ◽

Abstraction Level ◽

Follow Up Studies ◽

The One ◽

The Right ◽

Abstract Framework ◽

Tools And Methods

AbstractDesign research as a field has been studied from diverse perspectives starting from product inception to their disposal. The product of these studies includes knowledge, tools, methods, processes, frameworks, approaches, and theories. The contexts of these studies are innumerable. The unit of these studies varies from individuals to organizations, using a variety of theoretical tools and methods that have fragmented the field, making it difficult to understand the map of this corpus of knowledge across this diversity.In this paper, we propose a model-based approach that on the one hand, does not delve into the details of the design object itself, but on the other hand, unifies the description of design problem at another abstraction level. The use of this abstract framework allows for describing and comparing underlying models of published design studies using the same language to place them in the right context in which design takes place and to enable to inter-relate them, to understand the wholes and the parts of design studies.Patterns of successful studies could be generated and used by researchers to improve the design of new studies, understand the outcome of existing studies, and plan follow-up studies.

Download Full-text