Abstract is not available

The complement system constitutes an important component of the innate immune system. To colonize their host and/or to cause disease, many pathogens have evolved strategies to avoid complement-mediated bacterial lysis and opsonophagocytosis. In this study, using a collection of 55 clinical isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae, we demonstrate for the first time that pneumococci bind the complement

Soft tissue sarcoma (STS) diagnostics and prognostics are challenging, particularly in highly malignant and pleomorphic subtypes such as undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma (UPS) and leiomyosarcoma (LMS). We applied 32K BAC arrays and gene expression profiling to 18 extremity soft tissue LMS and 31 extremity soft tissue UPS with the aim of identifying molecular subtype signatures and genomic prog

AIM: Mortality after curative surgery for rectal cancer is increased if surgery is not performed within a week of completed short course radiotherapy. A link to the suppression of leucocytes after neoadjuvant radiotherapy has been suggested. This study investigates the effects of radiotherapy on peripheral leucocyte counts, complications and survival. METHOD: Patient data variables from a retrospe

This study evaluated the relationship between natriuretic peptide levels and a wide range of echocardiography parameters in a population of thirty-three patients with poorly regulated type 2 diabetes, and no known heart failure. Natriuretic peptides brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and N-terminal prohormone BNP (NT-proBNP) were measured. Transthoracic echocardiography was performed and cardiac volu

STUDY OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to investigate the associations between medication with psychotropic drugs and falling accidents in the whole population aged 65 years and older in the county of Scania, Sweden. DESIGN: A population based nested case control study was performed. SUBJECTS: Cases were persons registered in the Region Healthcare database after a falling accident during

OBJECTIVE: Fms-like tyrosine kinase-3 (FLT3), a growth factor receptor normally expressed in hematopoietic progenitor cells, has been shown to have an important role in the development of acute myeloid leukemia due to activating mutations. FLT3 mutations are found in approximately one third of AML patients and correlate with a poor prognosis, thus making the FLT3 receptor a potential therapeutic t

Vietnam is undertaking health financing reform with a view to achieve universal coverage of health insurance within the coming years. To date, around half of the population is covered with some type of health insurance or prepayment. This review applies a conceptual framework of health financing to provide a coherent assessment of the reforms to date with respect to a set of key policy objectives

In order to preserve the quadratic convergence of the Newton-Raphson method applied to elasto-plastic finite element calculations, the consistent stiffness matrix must be used. Here, the consistent stiffness matrix is derived for the generalized trapezoidal rule. Special attention is paid to the case in which the integration is performed from an elastic to an elasto-plastic state and it is shown t