The ( C677T gene polymorphism is associated with neurological disorders and schizophrenia. Patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder and controls ( 134) had data collected for risk factors, molecular and neuro-sensory variables, symptoms, and functional outcomes. Promising gene variant-related predictive biomarkers were identified for diagnosis by Receiver Operating Characteristics and for illness duration by linear regression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Acute liver failure (ALF) has no effective treatment other than liver transplantation and is commonly caused by paracetamol overdose. New treatments are needed to treat and prevent ALF. Alternatively-activated macrophages (AAMs) can promote resolution of liver necrosis and stimulate hepatocyte proliferation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Frailty is in an increasing focus for acute care systems due to its association with adverse health outcomes. The Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) is a judgement-based frailty assessment tool, which classifies the frailty status of older adults, but more research involving general medicine inpatients is necessary. The objectives of this study were to describe the predictive ability of CFS, administered by geriatric medicine trained nurses, for adverse outcomes including the following: acute unit and total length of stay (LOS), new nursing home (NH) admission, 12-month mortality and readmission within 30-day.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: This study investigates which local area characteristics, included in the Healthy Ageing/Vulnerable ENvironment (HAVEN) Index, are the strongest factors predicting transition into permanent residential aged care (PRAC) and mortality, and the geographic distribution of these factors.
Methods: A retrospective cohort study of older individuals living in the community in Adelaide who received their first eligibility assessment for age care services between 2013 and 2015 (n = 16,939) was conducted. The study cohort, from the Registry of Senior Australians (ROSA), was linked by postcode to HAVEN Index items, selected following item response theory (IRT) analysis to determine the strongest local area factors associated with PRAC and mortality.
Background: Protection afforded by inactivated influenza vaccines can theoretically be improved by inducing T-cell responses to conserved internal influenza A antigens. We assessed whether, in an influenza controlled human infection challenge, susceptible individuals receiving a vaccine boosting T-cell responses would exhibit lower viral load and decreased symptoms compared with placebo recipients.
Methods: In this single centre, randomised, double-blind phase 2 study, healthy adult (aged 18-55 years) volunteers with microneutralisation titres of less than 20 to the influenza A(H3N2) challenge strain were enrolled at an SGS quarantine facility in Antwerp, Belgium.