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Category I (category + i)
Selected AbstractsThe new approach to assignment of ASFA categories,Introduction to the fourth special issue: Clinical applications of therapeutic apheresis,,JOURNAL OF CLINICAL APHERESIS, Issue 3 2007Zbigniew M. Szczepiorkowski Abstract The American Society for Apheresis (ASFA) Apheresis Applications Committee is responsible for a review and categorization of indications for therapeutic apheresis. The results of the review process were previously published in 1986, 1993, and 2000 as the ASFA Special Issues. The ASFA categories consist of categories I through IV, and category P (pending). This article describes the novel methodology, based on structured systematic review of the published literature, used to assign categories for indications for therapeutic apheresis. This is the first time each entity is presented as a fact sheet, which summarizes the evidence for the use of therapeutic apheresis. A detailed description of the fact sheet format and the individual fact sheets for categories I through III and category P are presented in the main article of this Special Issue. The diseases assigned to category IV are discussed in a separate article in this issue. Information on how the Apheresis Applications Committee proposes to include new diseases for category assignment is also provided. J. Clin. Apheresis., 2007 © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Liver-infiltrating CD56 positive T lymphocytes in hepatitis C virus infectionLIVER INTERNATIONAL, Issue 5 2000Kenji Yonekura Abstract:Aim: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause of post-transfusional and sporadic hepatitis, and leads to chronic liver disease. It has been suggested that virus-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes are responsible for liver injuries that occur in HCV-infected patients. However, the detailed characteristics of these lymphocytes have not yet been defined. We have previously reported that CD56+ T lymphocytes, as intermediates between natural killer cell and T lymphocytes, predominantly infiltrated the liver and were increased in patients with chronic hepatitis related to HCV (CH-C). Material and Methods: We obtained peripheral blood and liver tissues from 32 patients diagnosed as having CH-C, and 10 other liver disease patients (5 chronic hepatitis related to HBV, 5 alcoholics), and analyzed peripheral blood and liver-infiltrating lymphocytes using flow cytometric and immunohistochemical techniques. Results: The CD56+ T lymphocyte ratio in the liver of patients with a high histology activity index (HAI) score for chronic hepatitis was higher than that of patients with a low HAI score and patients with other liver diseases. In addition, T lymphocytes from patients with chronic hepatitis with a high HAI score carried mostly ,,-TCR. There was a correlation between the ratio of CH-C and serum alanine aminotransferase, category I (periportal inflammation and necrosis), and IV (fibrosis) of the HAI scoring system. The ratio was highest in zone 1 of the hepatic lobules. Conclusion: The correlation between CD56+ T lymphocyte ratios and hepatocellular damage was examined. These findings suggest strongly that liver-infiltrating CD56+ T lymphocytes play an important pathologic role in hepatocellular injury in CH-C. [source] An evaluation of Bosniak's radiological classification of cystic renal massesBJU INTERNATIONAL, Issue 6 2000S. Koga Objective To determine the clinical usefulness of Bosniak's classification of cystic renal masses, the differentiation of which remains difficult despite significant advances in diagnostic imaging. Patients and methods The computed tomography (CT) findings of all histopathologically examined cystic renal masses diagnosed at our institution were analysed retrospectively; 35 patients with cystic renal masses were treated between 1986 and 1998. Tissues surgically removed were examined pathologically and the final diagnosis compared with the preoperative CT category of Bosniak's classification. Results The histopathological examined showed cystic renal cell carcinoma in 21 patients, a benign renal cyst in 12, haemangiosarcoma in one and transitional cell carcinoma in one. Most of the 35 masses (26, 74%) were found incidentally during evaluation for an unrelated disease or a routine health check. All 11 masses of Bosniak category I were benign and one category II mass was malignant. All 10 masses of category III and 12 of category IV were malignant. Conclusions Bosniak's classification is useful for differentiating category I, III and IV cystic renal masses. There were too few samples to allow meaningful conclusions to be drawn for category II renal masses. It is critical to differentiate between complicated cysts of category II and III because of the major implications for prognosis and clinical management. [source] Policy modes, firms and the natural environmentBUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 2 2004Aseem Prakash This paper examines how different environmental policy types differentially impact firms and why firms vary in their responses to such policies. Based on the mechanisms embedded in policy instruments to create incentives for firms to comply, the characteristics of benefits/costs that policies impose on firms and the institutional context in which policy instruments were created and are sustained, the paper identifies five policy categories. These are category I (command and control), category II (market based), category III (mandatory information disclosures), category IV (business,government partnerships) and category V (private voluntary codes). Different policy types often bestow asymmetrical benefits/costs on firms. Some benefits/costs may constitute ,private/club goods' while others may constitute ,public goods'. Drawing insights from public policy literature, the paper argues that firms can be expected to favor policies whose benefits have the characteristics of private/club goods but the costs of public goods. Thus, understanding the nature of benefits/costs (private/club versus public) and the magnitude of their excludability is critical in explaining the variations in firms' responses. To understand how managers perceive the nature of benefits/costs (monetary as well as non-monetary), the paper draws on theories and perspectives in the business and public policy field. In doing so, the paper examines the ,demand' and the ,supply' sides as well as the market and non-market environments of a given policy. Thus, the paper makes a case for a multi-theoretic approach to understand variations in managerial assessments of benefits/costs, and consequently variations in their responses to various policy types. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] | ||||||||||