Publications by authors named "Claude F"

Introduction: The MAPT gene encodes Tau, a protein mainly expressed by neurons. Tau protein plays an important role in cerebral microtubule polymerization and stabilization, in axonal transport and synaptic plasticity. Heterozygous pathogenic variation in MAPT are involved in a spectrum of autosomal dominant neurodegenerative diseases known as taupathies, including Alzheimer's disease, Pick's disease, fronto-temporal dementia, cortico-basal degeneration and progressive supranuclear palsy.

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Introduction: Long COVID refers to persistent symptoms, lasting more than 4 weeks after acute SARS-CoV-2 infection, even though the infection itself has been successfully controlled and remedied. Patient complaints are diverse, and the underlying physiopathological mechanisms are not well understood. Dyspnea and muscle fatigue are among the most commonly reported symptoms.

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  • Graves' disease (GD) is a rare condition affecting children and adolescents, often treated with antithyroid drugs like carbimazole combined with levothyroxine, but many patients still face hormone fluctuations, particularly during puberty.
  • This study analyzed clinical data from 44 pediatric patients with GD across four Swiss hospitals to create a computer model that predicts individual disease activity and improves treatment outcomes.
  • The pharmacometrics model utilized FT4 measurements and treatment histories, revealing no significant differences in patient characteristics or treatment responses among varying severity groups of the disease.
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Vacuum quantum fluctuations near horizons are known to yield correlated emission by the Hawking effect. We use a driven-dissipative quantum fluid of microcavity polaritons as an analog model of a quantum field theory on a black-hole spacetime and numerically calculate correlated emission. We show that, in addition to the Hawking effect at the sonic horizon, quantum fluctuations may result in a sizable stationary excitation of a quasinormal mode of the field theory.

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Background: Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) is an important clinical tool that provides a global assessment of the respiratory, circulatory and metabolic responses to exercise which are not adequately reflected through the measurement of individual organ system function at rest. In the context of critical COVID-19, CPET is an ideal approach for assessing long term sequelae.

Methods: In this prospective single-center study, we performed CPET 12 months after symptom onset in 60 patients that had required intensive care unit treatment for a severe COVID-19 infection.

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  • The study investigated the prevalence and characteristics of sleep apnea (SA) in patients who were hospitalized in the ICU for severe COVID-19, focusing on their apnea hypopnea index (AHI) three months post-illness.
  • Out of 68 patients, a staggering 91% developed SA, with 44 individuals experiencing moderate to severe cases, while 62% of patients had other health issues, like obesity and hypertension.
  • The findings emphasize the need for sleep assessments after ICU care for COVID-19, as those with moderate to severe SA had more severe COVID-19 symptoms and longer hospital stays.
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Introduction: Brain tumors are the second most frequent type of all pediatric malignancies. Depending on their localization, patients with brain tumors may present neurological or ophthalmological symptoms, but also weight anomalies and endocrine disorders ranging from growth hormone deficiency, anomalies of puberty, diabetes insipidus to panhypopituitarism. Immediately at diagnosis, all patients with brain tumors require a complete assessment of the hypothalamic-pituitary function in order to address eventual endocrine disorders.

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Characterizing elementary excitations in quantum fluids is essential to study their collective effects. We present an original angle-resolved coherent probe spectroscopy technique to study the dispersion of these excitation modes in a fluid of polaritons under resonant pumping. Thanks to the unprecedented spectral and spatial resolution, we observe directly the low-energy phononic behavior and detect the negative-energy modes, i.

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We investigate theoretically and experimentally a first-order dissipative phase transition, with diffusive boundary conditions and the ability to tune the spatial dimension of the system. The considered physical system is a planar semiconductor microcavity in the strong light-matter coupling regime, where polariton excitations are injected by a quasiresonant optical driving field. The spatial dimension of the system from 1D to 2D is tuned by designing the intensity profile of the driving field.

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Introduction: Survivors of viral ARDS are at risk of long-term physical, functional and neuropsychological complications resulting from the lung injury itself, but also from potential multiorgan dysfunction, and the long stay in the intensive care unit (ICU). Recovery profiles after severe SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia in intensive care unit survivors have yet to be clearly defined.

Material And Methods: The goal of this single-center, prospective, observational study was to systematically evaluate pulmonary and extrapulmonary function at 12 months after a stay in the ICU, in a prospectively identified cohort of patients who survived SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia.

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Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality, especially in cases of chronic hypercapnic respiratory failure. Following a prolonged debate, the indication and benefits of noninvasive ventilation (NIV) have been recently established. Although improved ventilation and reduction in hyperinflation appear to underlie the positive effect on NIV in COPD, only a few studies have focused on specific ventilatory algorithms for improving PaCO2.

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Article Synopsis
  • A 35-year-old man was hospitalized due to frequent pneumonia, along with two months of difficulty breathing during exertion and a persistent productive cough with thick, whitish mucus.
  • Despite receiving antibiotics, his symptoms persisted, and he experienced a weight loss of 5 kg during this time.
  • His medical history was mostly unremarkable apart from a 10 pack-year smoking history and he didn't have any issues with swallowing, fever, or chest pain.
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Analogue gravity enables the study of fields on curved space-times in the laboratory. There are numerous experimental platforms in which amplification at the event horizon or the ergoregion has been observed. Here, we demonstrate how optically generating a defect in a polariton microcavity enables the creation of one- and two-dimensional, transsonic fluid flows.

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We investigate the formation of a new class of density-phase defects in a resonantly driven 2D quantum fluid of light. The system bistability allows the formation of low-density regions containing density-phase singularities confined between high-density regions. We show that, in 1D channels, an odd (1 or 3) or even (2 or 4) number of dark solitons form parallel to the channel axis in order to accommodate the phase constraint induced by the pumps in the barriers.

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  • COPD is linked to a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, but the reasons for this connection are not completely understood.
  • This study aimed to measure systemic arterial stiffness in mild to moderate COPD patients and see how factors like tobacco smoking and organic dust exposure influence it.
  • Results showed that patients with COPD had higher arterial stiffness compared to healthy controls when exposed to tobacco smoke, but not with organic dust alone, indicating that tobacco smoking is a significant risk factor for arterial stiffness in COPD patients.
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Objective: Patients with cystic fibrosis are more susceptible than members of the general population to lung infections. Infections with Pseudomonas aeruginosa require particular attention, because they may accelerate the deterioration of lung function if not adequately treated. This study assessed the eradication rate of P.

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Objectives: Studies highlight the beneficial effects of social and leisure activities on the well-being of aging people. Our aims were: to investigate activity profiles among older adults living in their own homes, to highlight potential changes in profiles over a period of five years and to examine effects of differences between these profiles on well-being variables.

Methods: Three waves were considered in this longitudinal study, with 550, 410 and 374 people (76, 79, 82 years on average), respectively.

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Background: The relevance of screening for airway obstruction in subjects not complaining of COPD symptoms may depend on the definition of airway obstruction. Response to exercise in asymptomatic subjects with persistent airway obstruction as defined by a postbronchodilator FEV1/FVC <5th centile lower limit of normal (LLN) remains unknown.

Methods: Dyspnoea (Borg scale), exercise tolerance and ventilatory constraints on tidal volume expansion were assessed in 20 consecutive asymptomatic subjects with persistent mild airway obstruction detected by screening (postbronchodilator FEV1/FVC z-score: -2.

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2013 was full of significant advances in all areas of medicine, which may have an impact on daily practice in general internal medicine. From salt and water restriction in heart failure to transfusion threshold in upper gastrointestinal bleeding and fecal infusion in Clostridium difficile colitis; from new data in resuscitation and persistent questions in palliative care and intensive care medicine, through pneumology, nephrology and endocrinology, the literature has been rich in new considerations. Each year, the residents of the Department of internal medicine of the University hospital of Vaud (CHUV) meet to share their most interesting readings.

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Vincristine is a common anti-cancer therapy administered for the treatment of many types of tumors. Its dose-limiting side effect is the production of peripheral neuropathy, resulting in chronic neuropathic pain in many patients. An animal model of vincristine-induced sensory neuropathy was developed after repeated intraperitoneal injection in male rats and used in the present work to study the effects of PL37, an orally active complete dual inhibitor of enkephalin-catabolizing enzymes, on mechanical hypersensitivity and allodynia and on cold allodynia.

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This study deals with the development of gene therapy in the treatment of lung diseases. It reports on the use of ultrasonic nebulization to administer plasmid-lipid complexes to the lungs of mice to transfect their epithelial cells. A plasmid complexed to cationic lipids was aerosolized using an ultrasonic nebulizer.

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A phosphatase has been partially purified from crude extracts of Poterioochromonas malhamensis. The enzyme appears to be specific for alpha-galactosyl-(1 --> 1)-glycerol 3-phosphate as it is relatively inactive towards glucose 1-phosphate, glucose 6-phosphate, fructose 6-phosphate, and sn-glycerol 3-phosphate.

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