Publications by authors named "Taibi L"

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare levels of pain and anxiety during percutaneous ultrasound-guided liver biopsy between patients receiving standard of care and those receiving standard of care plus the support of Ericksonian hypnosis.

Materials And Methods: This prospective, single-center, single-blind, randomized controlled superiority trial included 70 participants. Participants were randomly assigned to either the standard of care group and received oral anxiolytic medications with reassuring conversational support, or to the experimental group, and received Ericksonian hypnosis (i.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Determination of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) activity in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) can help for establishing the diagnosis of neurosarcoidosis. We investigated the performance characteristics of two assays for ACE determination in 57 CSF, radiometry with [glycine-1-14C] benzoyl-L-histidyl-L-leucine and spectrophotometry with furylacryloyl-phenylalanyl-L-glycyl-L-glycine (FAPGG) as substrates. We compared both kinetic assays to an ELISA specific for human ACE.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Hereditary tyrosinemia type 1 (HT1) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder of phenylalanine and tyrosine catabolism due to a deficiency of fumarylacetoacetate hydrolase. HT1 has a large clinical spectrum with acute forms presenting before six months of age, subacute forms with initial symptoms occurring between age 6 and 12 months, and chronic forms after 12 months of age. Without treatment, HT1 results in the accumulation of toxic metabolites leading to liver disease, proximal tubular dysfunction, and porphyria-like neurological crises.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Deficiency of 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2 (3βHSD2) is a rare type of congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), causing impaired steroid hormone production in both adrenals and gonads. Phenotype ranges, according to the genetic defect, from the salt-wasting form in both sexes to undervirilization in males and virilization in females. We present a 13-month-old male infant who was admitted to the hospital with signs of adrenocortical insufficiency and genital ambiguity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Blood angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) assay is now realized by the determination of enzyme activity on synthetic substrate, mostly furylacryloyl-phenylalanyl-L-glycyl-L-glycine (FAPGG). The matrix can be serum or heparin-plasma, with or without a separator; the assay developed on serum or plasma is not adapted to other matrix such as cerebrospinal fluid where the ACE activity is much lower. This assay has been adapted on a number of automated biochemistry analyzers with the specifications of the supplier of reagents, sometimes with modification of volumes or times for analysis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Early-onset neonatal sepsis (EOS) is observed in 1.7% of extremely preterm infants, with high morbidity and mortality rate. Cord blood procalcitonin (PCT) is a sensitive marker of EOS in full-term newborns, but it has been rarely studied in premature infants.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Sarcoidosis is a systemic granulomatous disease, which mostly affects lung. Central nervous system can be affected causing a neurosarcoidosis in 5 to 15% of all sarcoidosis patients. The definitive diagnosis is established on histological examination of brain granulomas.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background Non-invasive methods for assessing liver fibrosis are increasingly used as an alternative to liver biopsy. Recently, a score-based biochemical blood test (Coopscore) was developed in a cohort of patients chronically infected with hepatitis C virus, showing higher diagnostic performances than Fibrometer®, Fibrotest®, Hepascore® and Fibroscan™. Here, we assess its performance in patients co-infected with the human immunodeficiency virus and hepatitis B virus.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Deep dermatophytosis is a severe and sometimes life-threatening fungal infection caused by dermatophytes. It is characterized by extensive dermal and subcutaneous tissue invasion and by frequent dissemination to the lymph nodes and, occasionally, the central nervous system. The condition is different from common superficial dermatophyte infection and has been reported in patients with no known immunodeficiency.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Noninvasive methods for liver fibrosis evaluation in chronic liver diseases have been recently developed, i.e. transient elastography (Fibroscan™) and blood tests (Fibrometer®, Fibrotest®, and Hepascore®).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

French and US endocrine societies recommend using GC-MS or RIA after purification (extraction + chromatography) to assess blood levels of testosterone in women. However, most of laboratories use automatized methods that have to be reserved to measure testosterone levels in men. The aim of this study was to show the consequences of analytical discrepancies of some immunological methods on the diagnostics values of testosterone levels assayed in women.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We wished to evaluate the effects of FSH/LH ratio and number of doses of p-FSH during a superovulatory treatment on ovulation rate and embryo production (Experiment I). In Experiment II, we studied the efficacy of fertilization after various insemination schedules in superovulated donors. In Experiment I estrus was synchronized in 40 ewes (FGA, for 9 days plus PGF2alpha on Day 7) and the ewes were randomly assigned to four treatment groups as follows (n = 10 ewes each): Group A: four p-FSH doses with the FSH/LH ratio held constant (1.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The experiment was conducted from March to July 2002 using 5 intensively managed flocks of Southern Italy. In each flock, 2 groups of 50 ewes were created. The groups were designated LSCC (low somatic cell count [SCC]) when their milk SCC was lower than 500,000/mL and HSCC (high SCC) when their milk SCC was higher than 1,000,000/mL.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The effects of ventilation on air quality, and on the welfare and production performance of dairy ewes were assessed in a 6-wk trial conducted during the winter of 2002. Thirty-six midlactation Comisana ewes were divided into three groups of 12, which were randomly balanced for parity, time of lambing, and number of lambs suckled. Treatments were low (LOV), moderate (MOV), and programmed ventilation regimen (PROV).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The aim of the experiment was to assess the effects of either maternal deprivation or prevented suckling on lambs. Thirty Comisana lambs were assigned to a control dam-suckled group (DS) and two test groups of 10 each. Test lambs were maintained with their mothers 24 to 30 h after parturition and subsequently offered ewe milk from buckets: EM lambs were separated from their mothers, while EM+D animals were reared with their dams but suckling was denied by covering ewe udders with juta bags.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A 6-wk trial was performed with thirty-six lactating Comisana ewes during the summer of 2001. The animals were divided into three groups of 12, which were designated low (LVR), moderate (MVR), and programmed (PROGR) ventilation regimens. In LVR and MVR rooms, fans provided 10 ventilation cycles of 12.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Three groups of 12 midlactating Comisana ewes were housed in separate rooms of the same building and assigned to treatments of low (LV, 4.1 m3), medium (MV, 5.6 m3), or high (HV, 7.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The experiment involved 40 mid-lactating Comisana ewes. The animals were housed in straw-bedded pens and assigned to a control group (n = 10) and two test groups of 15 subjects each. Control ewes were never moved from their pen and peers throughout the experiment period, whereas test animals were subjected to either regrouping (RG) or regrouping and relocation (RGRL) three times at weekly intervals (d 7, 14, and 21 of the trial).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A 6-wk trial was performed with 40 late-lactation Comisana ewes, which were either exposed to or protected from solar radiation and fed either in the morning (EXPM, PROM) or afternoon (EXPA, PROA) during summer in a Mediterranean climate. Behavioral traits of ewes were recorded once per week from 0800 to 2000 h. Rectal temperature (RT) and respiration rate (RR) were measured twice weekly at 1430 h.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Twenty-four Comisana ewes, with no history of mastitis, were included in this study, with eight ewes each in parities 1, 2 and 3. Groups were separately penned on straw litter and ewes were individually checked for yield, composition, renneting properties and bacteriological characteristics of milk from January, when separated from their lambs (50+/-3 days after lambing), to May. Samples with more than 3.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

R-banded prometaphase karyotypes of the goat are presented using both fluorescent and light staining techniques. A model for the standardization of the R-banded prometaphase goat karyotype is suggested.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This study reports the authors' experience with excision of hemivertebrae in the treatment of congenital scoliosis. Although it is limited to 10 cases, it is significant because of the 9 years follow-up. The first patients treated have already passed the age of puberty and this is the most interesting aspect of the study.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF