Background: Treatment with methotrexate (MTX) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) leads to decreased total immunoglobulin (Ig) levels and impairs vaccine-specific IgG antibody levels following pneumococcal vaccination. The mechanisms by which MTX exerts these effects in RA are unknown. We aimed to evaluate whether MTX reduces vaccine-specific serum Ig levels and their functionality in RA pa

Mechanical damage at the time of joint injury and the ensuing inflammatory response associated with elevated levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the synovial fluid, are reported to contribute to the progression to osteoarthritis after injury. In this exploratory study, we used a targeted proteomics approach to follow the progression of matrix degradation in response to mechanical damage and cy

Objective: Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) decrease life expectancy for affected patients. The aim was to describe the perceptions of received information regarding diagnosis, treatment and management, as well as social support and coping perceived by patients with PAH or CTEPH. Methods: A descriptive, national cohort survey that incl

Background: Preoperative skeletal muscle depletion or sarcopenia has been suggested to predict worse outcome after resection of colorectal liver metastases. The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of neoadjuvant chemotherapy on preoperative skeletal muscle mass prior to liver resection. Methods: Patients operated with liver resection for colorectal liver metastases between 2010

Objective: Preoperative pain and function is viewed as an important predictor of total knee arthroplasty (TKA) outcomes. We examined whether variations in pain and function outcomes existed at 12 months between two centres in Sweden and Australia, and whether this was explained by variations in patient presentation for TKA. Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data

Background: Falls and fear of falling (FOF) are common in persons with late effects of polio, but there is limited knowledge of associated factors. Objective: To determine how knee muscle strength, dynamic balance, and gait performance (adjusted for gender, age, and body mass index) are associated with falls and FOF in persons with late effects of polio. Design: A cross-sectional study. Setting: A

Objectives: This study sought to test the hypothesis that a vectorcardiographic parameter, the QRS vector magnitude (QRSVm), can risk stratify those patients at risk for sustained spontaneous ventricular arrhythmias (VAs) or ventricular arrhythmia inducibility (VAI) in a large cohort of patients with tetralogy of Fallot (TOF). Background: Patients with TOF have an increased risk of VAs, but predic

Genetic studies of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) have identified a total of 53 CRS-associated SNPs that were subsequently evaluated for their reproducibility in a recent study. The rs2873551 SNP in linkage disequilibrium with PARS2 showed the strongest association signal. The present study aims to comprehensively screen for rare variants in PARS2 and evaluate for accumulation of such variants in CR

Objective: This study investigated the effect of alpha-ketoglutarate sodium salt (AKG) and ipriflavone (IP) treatment on the mineralization of the tibia in male rats during the development and after the establishment of osteopenia. Design: One hundred and twenty eight male rats were randomly selected and submitted to either sham-operation (SHO) or orchidectomy (ORX), after which each group were th

Introduction: The spatial peaks QRS-T angle accurately distinguishes children with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy from their healthy counterparts. The spatial peaks QRS-T angle is also useful in risk stratification for ventricular arrhythmias. We hypothesised that the spatial peaks QRS-T angle would be useful for the prediction of ventricular arrhythmias in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients under

Autoimmune diseases (ADs) are associated with a number of B-cell neoplasms but the associations are selective in regard to the type of neoplasm and the conferred risks are variable. So far no mechanistic bases for these differential associations have been demonstrated. We speculate that developmental origin of B-cells might propose a mechanistic rationale for their carcinogenic response to autoimm

Previously, radiostereometric analysis following hip revision performed using impacted morsellised allograft bone and a cemented Exeter stem has shown continuous subsidence of the stem for up to five years. It is not known whether the subsidence continues thereafter. In our study, 17 of 25 consecutive osteo-arthritic patients with aseptically loose stems who underwent first-time revision using imp

Among concentrating solar power technologies, direct steam generation solar tower power plants represent a promising option. These systems eliminate the usage of heat transfer fluids allowing for the power block to be run at greater operating temperatures and therefore further increasing the thermal efficiency of the power cycle. On the other hand, the current state of the art of these systems doe

This paper discusses the design and analysis of a reflector antenna system combining two doubly-curved Circular Polarization Selective Surfaces to provide a functionality equivalent to that of a dual gridded reflector but in circular polarization. The key feature of this design is to use a non-resonant CPSS design to avoid the bandwidth limitation of most CPSS designs previously discussed in the l

The latest study of the millimeter wave (mmWave) phased array in user device (UE) for 5G communication is presented in this paper. Particularly, the body effect on the phased array in a UE/mobile terminal at 15 GHz is investigated with the 3D measured data. Its impact on the recently introduced parameter for phased array in mobile terminal, the total scanning pattern, body loss and the coverage ef

A microstrip antenna integration with a power amplifier is presented for the 60 GHz band. The antenna is a single layer 4×4 square patches array. The power amplifier is injection locked, designed in a 65 nm CMOS technology, with single-ended input and output signals. The integration is realized by means of bond wire connections. The antenna and the power amplifier are fabricated, characterized and