The economic impact of compassionate use of medicines.

Background: Compassionate use programs (CUP) for medicines respond to the ethical imperative of providing access to medicines before marketing approval to patients not recruited in trials. The economic impact of clinical trials has previously been investigated. No evidence on the net economic benefit of CUP exists.

Galectin-3-expression analysis in the surgical selection of follicular thyroid nodules with indeterminate fine-needle aspiration cytology: a prospective multicentre study.

Background: In the USA, about 30 200 well-differentiated thyroid carcinomas were diagnosed in 2007, but the prevalence of thyroid nodules is much higher (about 5% of the adult population). Unfortunately, the preoperative characterisation of follicular thyroid nodules is still a challenge, and many benign lesions, which remain indeterminate after fine-needle aspiration (FNA) cytology are referred to surgery. About 85% of these thyroid nodules are classified as benign at final histology.

Poly(ADP-ribose)polymerase activity is reduced in circulating mononuclear cells from type 2 diabetic patients.

Poly(ADP-ribose)polymerase (PARP-1), a nuclear enzyme activated by DNA strand breaks, is involved in DNA repair, aging, inflammation, and neoplastic transformation. In diabetes, reactive oxygen and nitrogen species occurring in response to hyperglycemia cause DNA damages and PARP-1 activation. Because circulating mononuclear cells (MNCs) are involved in inflammation mechanisms, these cells were chosen as the experimental model to evaluate PARP-1 levels and activity in patients with type 2 diabetes.