Anti-BP180 autoantibody levels at diagnosis correlate with 1-year mortality rates in patients with bullous pemphigoid.

Background: Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is the most frequent autoimmune blistering disease mainly affecting elderly patients. Among several published risk factors, a recent post hoc analysis linked anti-BP180 autoantibodies (AABs) to fatal outcomes in BP. To date, this finding has not been confirmed independently.

[Bullous Sweet's syndrome with pulmonary involvement].

Acute febrile neutrophilic dermatosis (Sweet's syndrome) is a rare dermatosis characterized by painful papules and plaques accompanied by cutaneous infiltration with neutrophilic granulocytes. Bullous changes are observed in some cases. We report about a patient with osteomyelofibrosis who developed fever accompanied by painful plaques and confluent papules on both arms and thighs.

Etanercept, Adalimumab und Ustekinumab bei Psoriasis: Analyse von 209 Behandlungsreihen in Österreich.

Hintergrund Und Ziele: Biologika werden häufig zur Behandlung der Psoriasis eingesetzt und wurden in zahlreichen klinischen Studien getestet. Allerdings können sich Wirkungen und Nebenwirkungen (AEs) bei "real-world"-Patienten unterscheiden, da diese keiner solch strengen Auswahl und Überwachung unterzogen werden. Wir haben Therapieadhärenz ("Medikamenten-Überlebenszeit"), Wirksamkeit und AEs (Qualität, Zeitpunkt des Auftretens) bei "real-world"-Psoriasis-Patienten, die mit Etanercept, Adalimumab oder Ustekinumab behandelt wurden, untersucht.

Etanercept, adalimumab, and ustekinumab in psoriasis: analysis of 209 treatment series in Austria.

Background And Objectives: Widely used in the treatment of psoriasis, biologics have been tested in numerous clinical trials. However, drug efficacies and adverse events (AEs) may differ in 'real-world' patients as they do not undergo as rigorous selection and monitoring. Our objective was to examine drug survival, efficacy, and AEs (quality, time of onset) in 'real-world' psoriasis patients treated with etanercept, adalimumab, and ustekinumab.

Sensation seeking and executive deficits in relation to alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use frequency among university students: Value of ecologically based measures.

Introduction: The development of substance use and addiction has been linked to impaired executive function which relies on systems that converge in the prefrontal cortex. This study examined several measures of executive function as predictors of college student alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use frequency and abuse.

Methods: College students (N=321) were administered the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) test battery, the Sensation Seeking Scale V (SSSV), the Frontal Systems Behavioral Scale (FrSBe), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), the Michigan Alcohol Screening Test (MAST), the Fagerstrom Test of Nicotine Dependence (FTND).

The burden of malignant melanoma--lessons to be learned from Austria.

Aim Of Study: Incidence rates of melanoma, generated by cancer registries (CRs), are susceptible to reporting inconsistencies due to increasing decentralisation of diagnosis. We therefore independently assessed the burden of melanoma in Austria.

Methods: We collected histopathological reports on melanoma of all patients diagnosed in Austria in 2011.

Relevance of calcitonin cut-off in the follow-up of medullary thyroid carcinoma for conventional imaging and 18-fluorine-fluorodihydroxyphenylalanine PET.

Aim: The American thyroid association (ATA) recommends that additional imaging procedures supplement cervical ultrasonography (US) in any patient with a basal calcitonin value above 150 pg/ml in the follow-up of medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC). The aim of the present study was to reaffirm or challenge this cut-off for 18-Fluorine-Fluorodihydroxyphenylalanine positron emission tomography (18F-DOPA PET) and conventional imaging ultrasonography (US), computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)).

Materials And Methods: Thirty-nine patients (18 females, 21 males), mean age 62 years, range from 35 to 86, followed-up for MTC were included in the present retrospective study.

Efficacy of intravenous immunoglobulins in livedoid vasculopathy: long-term follow-up of 11 patients.

Background: Evidence for the efficacy of various therapies of livedoid vasculopathy (LV) is limited.

Objective: We sought to determine efficacy and tolerability of 2 g/kg of intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIG) every 4 weeks in patients with LV.

Methods: This was a long-term follow-up study of 11 patients with LV treated with 2 g/kg of IVIG assessing the clinical characteristics, disease course, and quality of life.

Propensity score matching in the evaluation of drug therapy management programs: an illustrative analysis of a program for patients with hepatitis C virus.

This retrospective cohort analysis demonstrates the application of propensity score methods in the Be In Charge (BIC) program, a drug therapy management program for patients with hepatitis C. Data were drawn from BIC participant records and program utilization and from a longitudinal database of administrative claims for pharmacy and medical services. Eligible patients must have received peginterferon alfa-2b (PEG-IFN alfa-2b) and ribavirin, but analyses evaluated only PEG-IFN alfa-2b use; BIC enrollees were matched with patients not enrolled in BIC (controls).

Addition of dexmedetomidine to standard sedation regimens after cardiac surgery: an outcomes analysis.

Study Objective: To characterize inpatient use of intravenous sedatives in the real-world setting, and to evaluate clinical and economic outcomes when dexmedetomidine was used with midazolam and propofol for select cardiovascular procedures.

Design: 12-month retrospective analysis.

Data Source: An administrative claims database of operational data from a nationally representative sample of 250 medical and surgical hospitals.

Psychometric properties of the Medical Outcomes Study Sleep measure.

Background And Purpose: Sleep is an active and highly organized biological process that is an important component of life. Self-report measures of sleep provide information that can be useful for characterizing the quality of sleep in subgroups of the population. A 12-item self-report sleep measure, the Medical Outcomes Study Sleep measure, was developed and evaluated previously in a sample of 3445 individuals with chronic illness.

Quality of life terminology included in package inserts for US approved medications.

Objectives: To identify and review prescription drugs approved in the US containing quality of life (QoL) terminology within the package inserts (PIs).

Methods: The electronic Physician Desk Reference (PDR) was searched for the terminology 'Quality of Life' or 'QoL' as of December 2000. Summary basis of approvals (SBAs) served as the primary data sources were retrieved.

Effect of diodes-laser silver arsenide-aluminium (Ga-Al-As) 904 nm on healing of experimental wounds.

Diodes-laser silver arsenide-aluminium (Ga-Al-As) 904 nm, which was used because of its properties of good tissue penetration and manageability, applied 5 min daily for 5 days at 3,000 Hz of frequency (energy density = 3 J), promoted healing of experimental wounds in rats from both a microscopic and histologic point of view. The same laser applied in these experimental conditions (number of rats was eight for each group) at the same energy density (3 J) for 10 min daily during 5 days at 1,500 Hz of frequency did not affect the experimental wounds.

[Scanning electron microscopy study of rat lung tissue].

Parts of rat lung tissue have been examined by means of a scanning electron microscope after either chemical or physical fixage. Chemical fixage produces retraction on the tissue structures and the alveoles appear of irregular shape. Physical fixage gives the possibility to observe lung morphology without distorsions; details reproduced are in this case very clear and in a shape which appears very close to the original conditions.

[Effects of citidine diphosphocholine (citicholine) and phospholipids on the elastic properties of the lung and on the physico-chemical properties of the irrigation liquid].

The effect of citidin-diphosphocholine and of phospholipids treatments on the elastic properties as well as on the washing liquid physical-chemical properties of rat lungs is studied. Significant increase of the compliance and decrease of the tendency to collapse of the airways are observed after treatment with citidin-diphosphocholine.