Infection commonly complicates diabetic foot ulcers and is associated with a poor outcome. In a cohort of individuals with an infected diabetic foot ulcer, we aimed to determine independent predictors of lower-extremity amputation and the predictive value for amputation of the International Working Group on the Diabetic Foot (IWGDF) classification system and to develop a risk score for predicting

objective. The aim of the research was to evaluate the level of patients' knowledge about type 2 diabetes, treatment and proceedings in the case of the disease. materials and method. 100 patients suffering from type 2 diabetes were included in the research, aged 40-90 years (64% and 36%), who lived in the countryside (54%) and in the city (46%), hospitalized in the internal and geriatric wards in

In this paper, we report enhanced performance of inverted polymer solar cells composed of poly[2,3-bis-(3-octyloxyphenyl)quinoxaline-5,8-diyl-alt-thiophene-2,5-diyl] (TQ1):[6,6]-phenyl-C-71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM) blends by using poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)-modified ZnO as an electron transport layer. It is found that PEO modification to the ZnO nanoparticle surface can effectively passi

Square cross-section ribbed channels with deflectors are computationally simulated to determine their optimal configuration for enhancing heat transfer with minimized pressure drop penalties. In this study, the channel inlet Reynolds number ranges from 8,000 to 24,000. The influence of deflector arrangement on the overall performance characteristics of ribbed channels is investigated with six diff

AimsAnaemia and iron deficiency are constituents of the cardio-renal syndrome in chronic heart failure (CHF). We investigated the effects of i.v. iron in iron-deficient CHF patients on renal function, and the efficacy and safety of this therapy in patients with renal dysfunction. Methods and resultsThe FAIR-HF trial randomized 459 CHF patients with iron deficiency (ferritin

The complexity of the brain, in which different neuronal cell types are interspersed and complexly interconnected, has posed a major obstacle in identifying pathophysiological mechanisms underlying prevalent neurological disorders. This is largely based in the inability of classical experimental approaches to target defined neural populations at sufficient temporal and spatial resolution. As a con

BACKGROUND: We report the development of a cutaneous melanoma risk algorithm based upon seven factors; hair color, skin type, family history, freckling, nevus count, number of large nevi, and history of sunburn, intended to form the basis of a self-assessment Web tool for the general public.METHODS: Predicted odds of melanoma were estimated by analyzing a pooled dataset from 16 case-control studie

Background The Global Burden of Disease Study 2013 (GBD 2013) aims to bring together all available epidemiological data using a coherent measurement framework, standardised estimation methods, and transparent data sources to enable comparisons of health loss over time and across causes, age-sex groups, and countries. The GBD can be used to generate summary measures such as disability-adjusted life

This paper presents a new strategy to combine the power of antibody based capturing of target species in complex samples with the benefits of microfluidic reverse phase sample preparation on an integrated sample enrichment target (RP-ISET) and the analysis speed of MALDI MS. The immunoaffinity step is performed on an in-house developed 3D-structured high surface area porous silicon (PSi) matrix, w

This study reports the early and midterm to long-term experience of chimney grafts (CGs) in urgent endovascular repair of complex lesions in the thoracic aorta.

Objectives: To describe the survival rate in a cohort of systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and to evaluate possible predictors for SSc-PAH in a cohort of SSc patients. Methods: Thirty patients with SSc-PAH and 150 SSc patients without PAH were included. Survival and survival on therapy were calculated. Clinical features at baseline were correlated to the

Experience with tranexamic acid, an indirect fibrinolytic inhibitor, started as soon as it was released from Shosuke Okamoto's lab in the early 1960s. It was first prescribed to females with heavy menstrual blood loss and to patients with hereditary bleeding disorders. Soon the indications were widened to elective surgery because of its blood saving effects. Contraindications are few, most importa

Objective. To create a prognostic tool to quantify the 5-year cardiovascular (CV) risk in patients with newly diagnosed Wegener's granulomatosis (WG) and microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) without premorbid CV disease. Methods. We reviewed CV outcomes during the long-term followup of patients in the first 4 European Vasculitis Study Group (EUVAS) trials of WG and MPA. CV events were defined as CV deat

The self-assembly of proteins into beta-sheet-rich amyloid fibrils has been observed to occur with sigmoidal kinetics, indicating that the system initially is trapped in a metastable state. Here, we use a minimal lattice-based model to explore the thermodynamic forces driving amyloid formation in a finite canonical (NVT) system. By means of generalized-ensemble Monte Carlo techniques and a semi-an

Objectives: To explore how quality of life (QoL) and quality of care (QoC) for people with dementia (PwD) vary across 8 European countries; to explore how QoL and QoC for PwD vary across living arrangements; and to assess the association between QoL and QoC. Design: Cross-sectional survey. Setting: Institutional long term care and home care in 8 European countries (England, Estonia, Finland, Franc

Purpose: To subjectively and objectively evaluate the methods used for preoperative assessment of iliac artery tortuosity in patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). Methods: Iliac artery tortuosity was assessed retrospectively in 188 patients (160 men; mean age 73 years) diagnosed with AAA at our clinic in 2006 and 2007. All patients underwent preoperative computed tomography (CT) with