Aerosolized Calfactant for Newborns With Respiratory Distress: A Randomized Trial.

Background: Exogenous surfactants to treat respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) are approved for tracheal instillation only; this requires intubation, often followed by positive pressure ventilation to promote distribution. Aerosol delivery offers a safer alternative, but clinical studies have had mixed results. We hypothesized that efficient aerosolization of a surfactant with low viscosity, early in the course of RDS, could reduce the need for intubation and instillation of liquid surfactant.

International Robotic Radical Cystectomy Consortium: A way forward.

Robot-assisted radical cystectomy (RARC) is an emerging operative alternative to open surgery for the management of invasive bladder cancer. Studies from single institutions provide limited data due to the small number of patients. In order to better understand the related outcomes, a world-wide consortium was established in 2006 of patients undergoing RARC, called the International Robotic Cystectomy Consortium (IRCC).

Acoustic and perceptual consequences of clear and loud speech.

Objective: Several issues concerning F2 slope in dysarthria were addressed by obtaining speech acoustic measures and judgments of intelligibility for sentences produced in Habitual, Clear and Loud conditions by speakers with Parkinson's disease (PD) and healthy controls.

Patients And Methods: Acoustic measures of average and maximum F2 slope for diphthongs, duration and intensity were obtained. Listeners judged intelligibility using a visual analog scale.

Vowel acoustics in Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis: comparison of clear, loud, and slow speaking conditions.

Purpose: The impact of clear speech, increased vocal intensity, and rate reduction on acoustic characteristics of vowels was compared in speakers with Parkinson's disease (PD), speakers with multiple sclerosis (MS), and healthy controls.

Method: Speakers read sentences in habitual, clear, loud, and slow conditions. Variations in clarity, intensity, and rate were stimulated using magnitude production.

A phase II study of high-dose cetuximab plus irinotecan in colorectal cancer patients with KRAS wild-type tumors who progressed after standard dose of cetuximab plus irinotecan.

Objectives: We conducted a phase II clinical trial of high-dose cetuximab plus irinotecan in KRAS wild-type patients who progressed on standard-dose cetuximab plus irinotecan.

Methods: Patients who progressed within 4 weeks from receiving a minimum of 6 weeks of standard-dose cetuximab plus irinotecan were included in this study. Cetuximab was administered at 500 mg/m(2)/week and irinotecan was administered at the same dose/schedule on which each individual patient had previously progressed.

Design and synthesis of multifunctional gold nanoparticles bearing tumor-associated glycopeptide antigens as potential cancer vaccines.

The development of vaccines against specific types of cancers will offer new modalities for therapeutic intervention. Here, we describe the synthesis of a novel vaccine construction prepared from spherical gold nanoparticles of 3-5 nm core diameters. The particles were coated with both the tumor-associated glycopeptides antigens containing the cell-surface mucin MUC4 with Thomsen Friedenreich (TF) antigen attached at different sites and a 28-residue peptide from the complement derived protein C3d to act as a B-cell activating "molecular adjuvant".

Acoustics of clear speech: effect of instruction.

Purpose: This study investigated how different instructions for eliciting clear speech affected selected acoustic measures of speech.

Method: Twelve speakers were audio-recorded reading 18 different sentences from the Assessment of Intelligibility of Dysarthric Speech ( Yorkston & Beukelman, 1984). Sentences were produced in habitual, clear, hearing impaired, and overenunciate conditions.

Biological effects and clinical significance of lenalidomide-induced tumour flare reaction in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia: in vivo evidence of immune activation and antitumour response.

Lenalidomide has demonstrated impressive antileukaemic effects in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). The mechanism(s) by which it mediates these effects remain unclear. Clinically, CLL patients treated with lenalidomide demonstrate an acute inflammatory reaction, the tumour flare reaction that is suggestive of an immune activation phenomenon.

Speech and pause characteristics associated with voluntary rate reduction in Parkinson's disease and Multiple Sclerosis.

Unlabelled: The primary purpose of this study was to investigate how speakers with Parkinson's disease (PD) and Multiple Sclerosis (MS) accomplish voluntary reductions in speech rate. A group of talkers with no history of neurological disease was included for comparison. This study was motivated by the idea that knowledge of how speakers with dysarthria voluntarily accomplish a reduced speech rate would contribute toward a descriptive model of speaking rate change in dysarthria.

Long-Term Average Spectral (LTAS) Measures of Dysarthria and Their Relationship to Perceived Severity.

This study investigated the relationship between measures of Long-Term Average Spectrum (LTAS) for speakers with Parkinson's disease (PD) and Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and scaled estimates of perceived speech severity. Perceived severity was operationally defined as listeners' overall impression of voice, resonance, articulatory precision, and prosody without regard to intelligibility. Healthy control talkers were also studied.

The impact of rate reduction and increased loudness on fundamental frequency characteristics in dysarthria.

Objective: This study examined the extent to which articulatory rate reduction and increased loudness were associated with adjustments in utterance-level measures of fundamental frequency (F(0)) variability for speakers with dysarthria and healthy controls that have been shown to impact on intelligibility in previously published studies. More generally, the current study sought to compare and contrast how a slower-than-normal rate and increased vocal loudness impact on a variety of utterance-level F(0) characteristics for speakers with dysarthria and healthy controls.

Patients And Methods: Eleven speakers with Parkinson's disease, 15 speakers with multiple sclerosis, and 14 healthy control speakers were audio recorded while reading a passage in habitual, loud, and slow conditions.

Effects of speaking task on intelligibility in Parkinson's disease.

Intelligibility tests for dysarthria typically provide an estimate of overall severity for speech materials elicited through imitation or read from a printed script. The extent to which these types of tasks and procedures reflect intelligibility for extemporaneous speech is not well understood. The purpose of this study was to compare intelligibility estimates obtained for a reading passage and an extemporaneous monologue produced by 12 speakers with Parkinson's disease (PD).

Does previous robot-assisted radical prostatectomy experience affect outcomes at robot-assisted radical cystectomy? Results from the International Robotic Cystectomy Consortium.

Objectives: To evaluate the effect of previous robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) case volume on the outcomes of robot-assisted radical cystectomy. Little is known regarding the effect of previous robotic surgical experience on the implementation and execution of robot-assisted radical cystectomy.

Methods: Using the International Robotic Cystectomy Consortium database, 496 patients were identified who had undergone robot-assisted radical cystectomy by 21 surgeons at 14 institutions from 2003 to 2009.

Lymphadenectomy at the time of robot-assisted radical cystectomy: results from the International Robotic Cystectomy Consortium.

Objective: To evaluate the incidence of, and predictors for, lymphadenectomy in patients undergoing robot-assisted radical cystectomy (RARC) for bladder cancer.

Patients And Methods: Utilizing the International Robotic Cystectomy Consortium (IRCC) database, 527 patients were identified who underwent RARC at 15 institutions from 2003 to 2009. After stratification by age group, sex, pathological T stage, nodal status, sequential case number, institutional volume and surgeon volume, logistic regression was used to correlate variables to the likelihood of undergoing lymphadenectomy (defined as ≥ 10 nodes removed).

Surgical margin status after robot assisted radical cystectomy: results from the International Robotic Cystectomy Consortium.

Purpose: Positive surgical margins at radical cystectomy confer a poor prognosis. We evaluated the incidence and predictors of positive surgical margins in patients who underwent robot assisted radical cystectomy for bladder cancer.

Materials And Methods: Using the International Robotic Cystectomy Consortium database we identified 513 patients who underwent robot assisted radical cystectomy, as done by a total of 22 surgeons at 15 institutions from 2003 to 2009.

The learning curve of robot-assisted radical cystectomy: results from the International Robotic Cystectomy Consortium.

Background: Robot-assisted radical cystectomy (RARC) has evolved as a minimally invasive alternative to open radical cystectomy for patients with invasive bladder cancer.

Objective: We sought to define the learning curve for RARC by evaluating results from a multicenter, contemporary, consecutive series of patients who underwent this procedure.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Utilizing the International Robotic Cystectomy Consortium database, a prospectively maintained and institutional review board-approved database, we identified 496 patients who underwent RARC by 21 surgeons at 14 institutions from 2003 to 2009.

Effects of multidisciplinary Internet-based program on management of heart failure.

OBJECTIVES: To develop and test the effectiveness of an Internet-based self management program by multidisciplinary health care professionals for patients with heart failure (HF). METHODS: The comprehensive educational material for HF was created and posted on a website. A computer with Internet connection and computer training were provided first.

Induction therapy of loco-regional non-small-cell lung cancer with reliable response and low toxicity (low dose radiotherapy sensitizes tumor to subsequent chemotherapy?).

Introduction: For the induction therapy of non-small-cell lung cancer, we need to look for a regimen which produces a reliable high response rate with a low treatment related morbidity and mortality.

Methods: Patients in clinical stages IB, IIA and B, IIIA and B received a course of therapy with 20Gy of radiation in 2 weeks. This was followed by two courses of chemotherapy consisting of paclitaxel 180mg/m(2), cisplatin 45mg/m(2), and ifosfamide 1000mg/m(2).

Care of elderly patients with chronic kidney disease.

Background: Providing optimal care to the growing number of chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients remains a significant problem in the United States. There is little known about the care of elderly CKD patients by primary care physicians as well as nephrologists.

Methods: We performed a retrospective study of 377 elderly male CKD (serum creatinine >1.