Long-term outcome in acquired aplastic anemia treated with an intensified dose schedule of horse antilymphocyte globulin in combination with androgens.

Aplastic anemia (AA) is a rare hematopoietic stem cell disease, which can be treated with horse antilymphocyte globulin (ALG) for patients not eligible for bone marrow transplantation. ALG gives about 60% overall survival rate (OS) after 5 years, a 30% of persistent complete remission and a 20% early death rate related to failure. ALG has been incriminated in the emergence of 10 to 20% therapy-related AML/MDS (t-AML/MDS) with the usual doses.

[The effect of an endothelin receptor antagonist in Eisenmenger syndrome: a single-center experience of 11 patients].

The Eisenmenger syndrome is a complication of congenital heart disease with significant left-to-right shunts, such as large ventricular septal defects, and corresponds to fixed pulmonary hypertension with shunt reversal. Bosentan, an inhibitor of endothelin A and B receptors, is a new molecule previously validated in the treatment of primary pulmonary hypertension. The authors report their monocentric experience of bosentan in 11 consecutive patients with the Eisenmenger syndrome treated for at least one year.

Vigilance troubles in Parkinson's disease: a subjective and objective polysomnographic study.

Background And Purpose: To assess the prevalence of vigilance disorders in Parkinson's disease patients, relate the observed phenomena to potential causes and confirm these troubles with polysomnographic analysis.

Patients And Methods: A questionnaire was used to gather information on demographic data, previous and current treatments, disease characteristics, sleep and vigilance troubles. Somnolence was measured using the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS).

Integrated cardio-thoracic imaging with ECG-Gated 64-slice multidetector-row CT: initial findings in 133 patients.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility of assessing the underlying respiratory disease as well as cardiac function during ECG-gated CT angiography of the chest with 64-slice multidetector-row CT (MDCT). One hundred thirty-three consecutive patients in sinus rhythm with known or suspected ventricular dysfunction underwent an ECG-gated CT angiographic examination of the chest without beta-blockers using the following parameters: (1) collimation: 32 x 0.6 mm with z-flying focal spot for the acquisition of 64 overlapping 0.

Low-dose ECG-gated 64-slices helical CT angiography of the chest: evaluation of image quality in 105 patients.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate image quality of low-dose electrocardiogram (ECG)-gated multislice helical computed tomography (CT) angiograms of the chest. One hundred and five consecutive patients with a regular sinus rhythm (72 men; 33 women) underwent ECG-gated CT angiographic examination of the chest without administration of beta blockers using the following parameters: (a) collimation 32 x 0.6 mm with z-flying focal spot for the acquisition of 64 overlapping 0.

Multi-detector row CT angiography of pulmonary circulation with gadolinium-based contrast agents: prospective evaluation in 60 patients.

Purpose: To prospectively evaluate gadolinium dose safety and effectiveness for 16-detector pulmonary computed tomographic (CT) angiography.

Materials And Methods: Ethics committee approval and informed consent were obtained. Sixty patients with contraindications to iodine underwent CT of the pulmonary circulation with 0.

Pulmonary arteriovenous malformations treated with embolotherapy: helical CT evaluation of long-term effectiveness after 2-21-year follow-up.

Purpose: To retrospectively evaluate the long-term results of transcatheter embolotherapy of pulmonary arteriovenous malformations (PAVMs) with helical computed tomography (CT).

Materials And Methods: Neither institutional review board approval nor patient consent was required for this retrospective study. Thirty-eight patients underwent follow-up helical chest CT 2-21 years after successful embolotherapy of 64 PAVMs.

Clinical predictors and prognostic significance of electrical storm in patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators.

Aims: Insufficient data exists regarding predictors of electrical storms (ES) and clinical outcome in patients treated with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD). The purpose of this study was to delineate a subgroup of patients likely to experience ES and to determine the impact of ES on mortality in ICD recipients.

Methods And Results: Baseline characteristics of 307 ICD-treated patients were retrospectively analysed.

Sixteen-slice multidetector computed tomography pulmonary angiography: evaluation of cardiogenic motion artifacts and influence of rotation time on image quality.

Objective: To describe the site and severity of cardiogenic motion artifacts on 16-slice multidetector computed tomography (CT) angiograms of the pulmonary circulation and to determine the impact of the gantry rotation time on image quality.

Methods: Sixty-nine patients underwent nonelectrocardiographically gated 16-slice multidetector CT angiography of the pulmonary circulation with a rotation time of 0.5 second (group 1, n = 37) or 0.

Tools for statistical analysis with missing data: application to a large medical database.

Missing data is a common feature of large data sets in general and medical data sets in particular. Depending on the goal of statistical analysis, various techniques can be used to tackle this problem. Imputation methods consist in substituting the missing values with plausible or predicted values so that the completed data can then be analysed with any chosen data mining procedure.

Outcome of patients less than 55 years of age with high-risk acute leukemia who did not have an human leukocyte antigen-identical related donor: a long-term study of 97 consecutive patients.

Between January 1993 and December 2000, an unrelated donor search (UDS) was initiated for 97 consecutive patients [46 acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and 51 acute myeloid leukemia (AML)]. Leukemia was considered to be of poor prognosis in cases of refractory disease (n=70), unfavourable karyotype (n=22) or miscellaneous (n=5). All patients had previously received various chemotherapies and 9 had undergone an autologous stem cell transplantation (SCT).

Corticobasal degeneration and Parkinson's disease assessed by HmPaO SPECT: the utility of factorial discriminant analysis.

The diagnosis of corticobasal degeneration (CBD) is difficult despite the existence of some typical clinical features. Single photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT) in CBD presents an original pattern (with asymmetric hypoperfusion in pre- and retrorolandic regions) that could facilitate the differential diagnosis of CBD relative to the other degenerative parkinsonian syndromes. The objective of our study was to compare the regional cerebral blood flow measurements studied by SPECT in both CBD and Parkinson's disease (PD) using a multivariate procedure.

Anti-Saccharomyces cerevisiae antibodies in twins with inflammatory bowel disease.

Background And Aims: An increased occurrence of anti-Saccharomyces cerevisiae antibodies (ASCA) is reported in unaffected members of families with Crohn's disease. Whether ASCA is a familial trait due to genetic factors or is caused by exposure to environmental factors is unknown. To assess the genetic influence of ASCA we studied its occurrence in a twin population.

Irregular nuclear shape of bone marrow plasma cells defines a multiple myeloma subgroup related to hypodiploidy and to short survival.

Morphological changes of plasma cells (PC) are common in multiple myeloma (MM). Loss of round or oval nuclear shape has been related to cell malignancy in human, and we looked for the occurrence of such morphological change on PC from bone marrow (BM) smears in a retrospective series of 169 MM patients at diagnosis. Nuclear shape changes of PC differed according to the patients (notch, dumb-bell, folded or monocytoid appearance), even in the same patient; all subtypes were pooled and defined as PC with irregular nuclear shape (PCIN).

Safety and effectiveness of gadolinium-enhanced multi-detector row spiral CT angiography of the chest: preliminary results in 37 patients with contraindications to iodinated contrast agents.

Purpose: To prospectively evaluate the safety and effectiveness of gadolinium-enhanced multi-detector row spiral computed tomographic (CT) angiography of the pulmonary circulation by using two gadolinium doses in patients with contraindications to iodinated contrast agents.

Materials And Methods: Study was approved by the Ethics Committee, and written informed consent was obtained. Thirty-seven patients (20 men, 17 women) with contraindications to iodinated contrast agents (allergic reactions, n = 27; impaired renal function, n = 10) underwent CT angiography of the pulmonary circulation in search of acute pulmonary embolism (n = 28) or for management of tumoral disease (n = 9).

Systemic collateral supply in patients with chronic thromboembolic and primary pulmonary hypertension: assessment with multi-detector row helical CT angiography.

Purpose: To compare retrospectively the frequency of systemic collateral supply in patients who have chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension with the frequency of systemic collateral supply in patients who have primary pulmonary hypertension by using multi-detector row helical computed tomographic (CT) angiography.

Materials And Methods: For this review, neither institutional board approval nor informed consent was required. Thirty-six consecutive patients, including 22 patients (four men, 18 women; mean age, 46.

Cognitive and SPECT characteristics predict progression of Parkinson's disease in newly diagnosed patients.

Objective: To identify features in cognitive functioning and regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in newly diagnosed Parkinson's disease (PD) patients and to determine whether these factors are able to predict the progression of the disease in general and the development of cognitive decline in particular.

Methods: 50 previously treatment-naive PD patients participated in the study. Cognitive assessment and SPECT were performed twice: at the time of diagnosis and then 3 years later.

Coronary arteries: assessment of image quality and optimal reconstruction window in retrospective ECG-gated multislice CT at 375-ms gantry rotation time.

Our objective was to evaluate the image quality of a 16-slice CT system with a rotation time of 375 ms in the assessment of coronary arteries. One hundred patients underwent iodine-enhanced CT coronary angiography within a single breath hold. Images were reconstructed in diastole, 300, 350, 400, 450, 500 and 550 ms prior to the onset of the next R-wave using absolute reverse retrospective ECG gating.

Cumulative influence of organ dysfunctions and septic state on mortality of critically ill children.

The interaction between sepsis and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome is poorly defined in children. We analyzed by Cox regression models the cumulative influence of organ dysfunctions, using the pediatric logistic organ dysfunction (PELOD) score, and septic state (systemic inflammatory response syndrome or sepsis, severe sepsis, and septic shock) on mortality of critically ill children. We included 593 children (mortality rate: 8.

Influence of social class on time trends in BMI distribution in 5-year-old French children from 1989 to 1999.

Aims: To assess the prevalence of obesity and changes in body mass index (BMI) distribution between 1989 and 1999 in 5-y-old children, and to study the influence of parental socioeconomic status on these parameters.

Methods: Two cohorts of children in the final year of nursery school (in the city of Lille, France) were enrolled in 1989 (705 children: mean age=5.6+/-0.

Assessing association rules and decision trees on analysis of diabetes data from the DiabCare program in France.

Recent advances in information technology have made it possible to solve increasingly complex problems, and also to collect and store huge amounts of information. These vast quantities of data further have to be transformed into relevant value-added and "decision-quality" knowledge. It is against this background that the KDD (Knowledge Discovery in Databases), a multidisciplinary field using computer learning, artificial intelligence, statistics, database technology, expert systems, and data visualization, appeared in the early 90's.

Statistical tools for clinical gait analysis.

Gait analysis studies involve continuous curves of data measured over a gait cycle. Curve analysis and interpretation require adequate statistical methods. Three principal problems may be encountered in clinical practice: (i) the reliability of gait curves for a given patient, (ii) classifying a new subject as belonging to a given population or not and (iii) comparison of two populations (independent or paired).

Asbestos-related pleuropulmonary diseases: evaluation with low-dose four-detector row spiral CT.

Purpose: To evaluate the depiction of lung and pleural asbestos-related lesions with low-dose four-detector row spiral computed tomography (CT).

Materials And Methods: Eighty-three male workers with a mean duration of occupational exposure to asbestos of 18 years underwent CT as part of a medicolegal investigation. CT examination included low-dose multi-detector row spiral CT of the entire thorax, with reconstruction of contiguous 5-mm-thick images, and thin-section CT, which served as the reference standard for the detection of pleural and parenchymal asbestos-related abnormalities.

[Histological diagnosis after Pap smears detecting cancer or high-grade lesion of the cervix].

Objective: The aim of the study is to analyze the histological-cytological correlations for Pap smears having detected cancer or high-grade squamous intra-epithelial lesion (HSIL) of the cervix.

Patients And Method: The study about 311 women is retrospective. The average age is 36.