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Specific Causes (specific + cause)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	68%
Humanities and Social Sciences	12%

Selected Abstracts

Identifying Specific Causes of Kidney Allograft Loss

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION, Issue 3 2009
Z. M. El-Zoghby
The causes of kidney allograft loss remain unclear. Herein we investigated these causes in 1317 conventional kidney recipients. The cause of graft loss was determined by reviewing clinical and histologic information the latter available in 98% of cases. During 50.3 ± 32.6 months of follow-up, 330 grafts were lost (25.0%), 138 (10.4%) due to death with function, 39 (2.9%) due to primary nonfunction and 153 (11.6%) due to graft failure censored for death. The latter group was subdivided by cause into: glomerular diseases (n = 56, 36.6%); fibrosis/atrophy (n = 47, 30.7%); medical/surgical conditions (n = 25, 16.3%); acute rejection (n = 18, 11.8%); and unclassifiable (n = 7, 4.6%). Glomerular pathologies leading to failure included recurrent disease (n = 23), transplant glomerulopathy (n = 23) and presumed nonrecurrent disease (n = 10). In cases with fibrosis/atrophy a specific cause(s) was identified in 81% and it was rarely attributable to calcineurin inhibitor (CNI) toxicity alone (n = 1, 0.7%). Contrary to current concepts, most cases of kidney graft loss have an identifiable cause that is not idiopathic fibrosis/atrophy or CNI toxicity. Glomerular pathologies cause the largest proportion of graft loss and alloinmunity remains the most common mechanism leading to failure. This study identifies targets for investigation and intervention that may result in improved kidney transplantation outcomes. [source]

Acute liver damage and subsequent hypophosphatemia in malnourished patients: Case reports and review of literature

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EATING DISORDERS, Issue 2 2008
Takatoshi Saito MD
Abstract Objective: The relationship between liver damage and subsequent hypophosphatemia in malnourished patients will be discussed. Method: The authors report two malnourished females who developed severe liver damage and subsequent hypophosphatemia. Liver damage commenced suddenly after over a week of hospitalization and deteriorated rapidly. Although the precise pathology of the liver damage could not be determined and the specific cause was not identified, steatohepatitis associated with fatty liver might be considered. Results: Hypophosphatemia following liver damage was considered to be the result of hepatocyte regeneration and replacement of phosphorus was an effective treatment. Conclusion: Hypophosphatemia in these cases suggested improvement from liver damage; however, it is commonly known that hypophosphatemia has a central role in refeeding syndrome in malnourished patients. Therefore, it was concluded that attention should be paid to hypophosphatemia after liver damage. © 2007 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 2008 [source]

Mortality forecasting using neural networks and an application to cause-specific data for insurance purposes

JOURNAL OF FORECASTING, Issue 6 2009
Paras Shah
Abstract Mortality forecasting is important for life insurance policies, as well as in other areas. Current techniques for forecasting mortality in the USA involve the use of the Lee,Carter model, which is primarily used without regard to cause. A method for forecasting morality is proposed which involves the use of neural networks. A comparative analysis is done between the Lee,Carter model, linear trend and the proposed method. The results confirm that the use of neural networks performs better than the Lee,Carter and linear trend model within 5% error. Furthermore, mortality rates and life expectancy were formulated for individuals with a specific cause based on prevalence data. The rates are broken down further into respective stages (cancer) based on the individual's diagnosis. Therefore, this approach allows life expectancy to be calculated based on an individual's state of health. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Intracranial Venous Thrombosis Associated with Severe Antithrombin-III Deficiency in Pregnancy

JOURNAL OF OBSTETRICS AND GYNAECOLOGY RESEARCH (ELECTRONIC), Issue 2 2001
Dr. Serdar Özsener
Abstract We report a patient with intracranial venous thrombosis in the third trimester of pregnancy associated with severe antithrombin-III deficiency. The evaluation of protein C, protein S and antithrombin-III levels in patients with thrombotic events during pregnancy may reveal the specific cause of the thrombotic event and thereby influence patient management [source]

Evaluation of clinical signs and causes of lower urinary tract disease in European cats

JOURNAL OF SMALL ANIMAL PRACTICE, Issue 12 2005
B. Gerber
Objectives: To investigate the clinical signs and causes of lower urinary tract disease (LUTD) in 77 cats. Methods: Cats diagnosed with LUTD over a two-year period were included in the study. Results: The study population comprised 67 male and 10 female cats. Uroliths occurred in 17 of the 77 cats (22 per cent), urethral plugs in eight cats (10 per cent) and urinary tract infection in six cats (8 per cent). In 44 cats (57 per cent), no specific cause for the disease was found and they were classified as having idiopathic LUTD. In two of the 77 cats (3 per cent) no definitive diagnosis was established. Pain was less common in cats with uroliths and haematuria was more often seen in cats with urinary tract infection. At presentation, urethral obstruction was diagnosed in 45 of the 77 cats (58 per cent). Clinical Significance: The causes of LUTD found in cats in this study are similar to those that have been previously documented, and idiopathic LUTD is the most frequent diagnosis. However, the rate of urethral obstruction, particularly in cats with idiopathic LUTD, was higher than in other reports. The cause of this difference is unknown. [source]

IDEOLOGICAL DEVELOPERS AND THE FORMATION OF LOCAL DEVELOPMENT POLICY: THE CASE OF INNER-CITY PRESERVATION IN TEL AVIV

JOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS, Issue 5 2008
NURIT ALFASI
ABSTRACT:,This article studies the role of ideological developers (IDs) in the formation and implementation of local development policy. The IDs are developers whose motivation is ideological as opposed to financial, and they initiate ideas rather than plans and projects. Based on a case study regarding inner-city preservation, we claim that in Tel Aviv, IDs have much leverage on local decision making. The IDs are individuals with high personal capital, who focus on an issue that it is not championed by existing civil groups. As the IDs seek out influential routes to policy makers, they build circumstantial coalitions. Through these limited and conditional partnerships with administrators and other influential actors, the IDs apply pressure and advance their specific cause. [source]

Identifying Specific Causes of Kidney Allograft Loss

Sperm chromatin integrity in young men with no experiences of infertility and men from idiopathic infertility couples

ANDROLOGIA, Issue 3 2009
R. Rybar
Summary Damage to the genetic component of spermatozoa seems to play the main role in a majority of cases where current approaches fail to reveal the specific cause of male infertility. In this study, we compared semen quality in men assigned to two defined groups: men from couples with unexplained infertility , idiopathic infertility (A) and young men with no experiences of infertility (B). All samples were examined by standard ejaculate analysis and sperm chromatin structure assay (SCSA). Sperm chromatin damage was significantly higher in men from group A than in those from group B. Similar results were obtained by comparison of men from group A (all men were normozoospermic) with normozoospermic men from group B. According to these results, we can suppose that chromatin disorders may be the causal factor of subfertility or infertility in some of these men. No evidence for a strong association between chromatin disorders and standard parameters of ejaculates was found. We failed to confirm a relationship between smoking and sperm quality in men from any of the investigated groups. SCSA is a method that facilitates the identification of infertile men who otherwise show normal semen variables. [source]

,Salience syndrome' replaces ,schizophrenia' in DSM-V and ICD-11: psychiatry's evidence-based entry into the 21st century?

ACTA PSYCHIATRICA SCANDINAVICA, Issue 5 2009
J. Van Os
Objective:, Japan was the first country to abandon the 19th century term of ,mind-splitting disease' (schizophrenia). Revisions of DSM and ICD are forthcoming. Should the rest of the world follow Japan's example? Method:, A comprehensive literature search was carried out in order to review the scientific evidence for the validity, usefulness and acceptability of current concepts of psychotic disorder. Results:, The discussion about re-classifying and renaming schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders is clouded by conceptual confusion. First, it is often misunderstood as a misguided attempt to change societal stigma instead of an attempt to change iatrogenic stigma occasioned by the use of misleading and mystifying terminology. Second, the debate is misunderstood as purely semantic, whereas in actual fact it is about the core concepts underlying psychiatric nosology. Third, it has been suggested that the debate is political. However, solid scientific evidence pointing to the absence of nosological validity of diagnostic categories lies at the heart of the argument. Fourth, there is confusion about what constitutes a syndrome (a group of symptom dimensions that cluster in different combinations in different people and for which one or more underlying diseases may or may not be found) and a disease (a nosologically valid entity with specific causes, symptoms, treatment and course). Conclusion:, Scientific evidence favours a syndromal system of classification combining categorical and dimensional representations of psychosis. The concept of ,salience' has the potential to make the public recognize psychosis as relating to an aspect of human mentation and experience that is universal. It is proposed to introduce, analogous to the functional-descriptive term ,Metabolic syndrome', the diagnosis of ,Salience syndrome' to replace all current diagnostic categories of psychotic disorders. Within Salience syndrome, three subcategories may be identified, based on scientific evidence of relatively valid and specific contrasts, named Salience syndrome with affective expression, Salience syndrome with developmental expression and Salience syndrome not otherwise specified. [source]

Hypertension is an independent predictor of survival disparity between African-American and white breast cancer patients

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CANCER, Issue 5 2009
Dejana Braithwaite
Abstract The objective of this study was to determine whether comorbidity, or pre-existing conditions, can account for some of the disparity in survival between African-American and white breast cancer patients. A historical cohort study was conducted of 416 African-American and 838 white women diagnosed with breast cancer between 1973 and 1986, and followed through 1999 in the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Medical Care Program. Information on comorbidity, tumor characteristics and breast cancer treatment was obtained from medical records, and Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results, Northern California Cancer Center Registry. Associations between comorbidity and survival were analyzed with multiple Cox proportional hazards regression. Over a mean follow-up of 9 years, African Americans had higher overall crude mortality than whites: 165 (39.7%) versus 279 (33.3%), respectively. When age, race, tumor characteristics and breast cancer treatment were controlled, the presence of hypertension was associated with all cause survival [hazard ratio (HR) = 1.33, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 1.07,1.67] and it accounted for 30% of racial disparity in this outcome. Hypertension-augmented Charlson Comorbidity Index was a significant predictor of survival from all causes (HR = 1.32, 95%CI 1.18,1.49), competing causes (HR = 1.52, 95%CI 1.32,1.76) and breast cancer specific causes (HR = 1.18, 95%CI 1.03,1.35). In conclusion, hypertension has prognostic significance in relation to survival disparity between African-American and white breast cancer patients. If our findings are replicated in contemporary cohorts, it may be necessary to include hypertension in the Charlson Comorbidity Index and other comorbidity measures. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

HDL-c is a powerful lipid predictor of cardiovascular diseases

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PRACTICE, Issue 11 2007
E. Bruckert
Summary Relationship between HDL-c and cardiovascular diseases:, Beyond the role of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) in the development of atherosclerosis, growing evidence suggest that high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c) is a powerful predictor of cardiovascular disease. Indeed, epidemiological, mechanistic and intervention studies suggest that low HDL-c is a major cardiovascular risk factor and that increasing HDL-c plasma levels may be beneficial, particularly in patients with low HDL-c levels. The inverse association between HDL-c concentrations and cardiovascular risk is continuous without threshold value. Thus, any categorical definition of low HDL-c is arbitrary. Protective effects of HDL:, HDL particles are highly heterogeneous in structure and intravascular metabolism. Antiatherogenic properties of HDL include its role in the reverse cholesterol transfer, besides its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antiapoptotic activities. What should clinicians do?:, From a practical point of view, HDL-c should be systematically measured to assess the cardiovascular risk in patients. The first step to consider in subjects with low HDL-c is to look for specific causes and give advice to change inappropriate lifestyle components associated with low HDL-c, such as smoking, lack of physical exercise and overweight. Patients with very low HDL-c need a thorough evaluation by specialist physicians. Statins are associated with a modest increase of HDL-c (5%) while fibrates and nicotinic acid increase HDL-c by 10% and 20% respectively. [source]

Childbearing and Women's Survival: New Evidence from Rural Bangladesh

POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT REVIEW, Issue 3 2003
Jane Menken
Effects of childbearing on women's mortality and the implications of family planning programs in reducing these effects are examined in a 20-year prospective study of more than 2,000 women in Matlab, Bangladesh. Maternal mortality is defined as a death occurring in the six weeks after childbirth. But childbearing may affect women's survival beyond this brief period. Additional hypotheses considered relate to 1) cumulative exposure to childbearing, whether measured by parity or pace of childbearing, 2) age at first birth, and 3) effects beyond the reproductive ages. The results offer no support to cumulative exposure hypotheses, showing no link between parity or pace of childbearing and mortality risk. Instead, we identify an extended period of heightened mortality risk associated with each birth,the year of the birth and the two subsequent years. Family planning programs, by reducing the number of children and therefore a woman's exposure to extended maternal mortality risk, potentially increase survival. Research is needed to identify and address the specific causes of extended maternal mortality risk so that appropriate ameliorative programs may be developed. [source]

Granulomatous appendicitis progressing to Crohn's disease with bleeding complication

ANZ JOURNAL OF SURGERY, Issue 7 2003
Pei Ho
Granulomatous appendicitis can be idiopathic or due to a number of specific causes. Idiopathic granulomatous appendicitis is regarded as a separate disease entity and usually has a benign course. We report on a case of granulomatous appendicitis, which progressed to fulminant Crohn's colitis shortly after appendicectomy. During the treatment with intravenous steroid, torrential gastrointestinal bleeding developed and emergency subtotal colectomy had to be performed. The clinical and histological features of the case are presented and the literature on granulomatous appendicitis reviewed. [source]

Semiparametric Models for Cumulative Incidence Functions

BIOMETRICS, Issue 1 2004
John Bryant
Summary. In analyses of time-to-failure data with competing risks, cumulative incidence functions may be used to estimate the time-dependent cumulative probability of failure due to specific causes. These functions are commonly estimated using nonparametric methods, but in cases where events due to the cause of primary interest are infrequent relative to other modes of failure, nonparametric methods may result in rather imprecise estimates for the corresponding subdistribution. In such cases, it may be possible to model the cause-specific hazard of primary interest parametrically, while accounting for the other modes of failure using nonparametric estimators. The cumulative incidence estimators so obtained are simple to compute and are considerably more efficient than the usual nonparametric estimator, particularly with regard to interpolation of cumulative incidence at early or intermediate time points within the range of data used to fit the function. More surprisingly, they are often nearly as efficient as fully parametric estimators. We illustrate the utility of this approach in the analysis of patients treated for early stage breast cancer. [source]

Vagal bradycardia at term

ACTA PAEDIATRICA, Issue 5 2009
Cristina Delcò
Abstract We discuss the case of a newborn boy presenting well into term with severe bradycardic events and sinus pauses up to 5.4 sec. Sinus bradycardia below 80 bpm and sinus pauses or asystole of more than 2 sec are considered pathologic at term. After exclusion of specific causes, the diagnosis of vagal hyper-reflectivity (VHR) was retained, a state caused by unbalance between sympathetic and parasympathetic activity, the latter overriding the former. It is thought to be a functional and transitional anomaly of the sympathetic and vagal tone during the first months of life and may lead to prolonged monitoring and delayed hospital discharge. This form of rare bradycardia can be treated with atropine and allowed in our case immediate resolution of events and safe discharge from hospital. Conclusion: When VHR is diagnosed, atropine is the treatment permitting resolution of symptomatic episodes of bradycardia and early and safe discharge from hospital. [source]

Behçet's disease and vitiligo in two brothers: coincidence or association?

CLINICAL & EXPERIMENTAL DERMATOLOGY, Issue 8 2009
M. Borlu
Summary Behçet's disease (BD) and vitiligo are disorders with unknown aetiology. We report on two brothers with ocular Behcet's disease who had advanced unilateral ophthalmic symptoms associated with vitiligo. The two brothers had recurrent oral and genital ulceration, uveitis and white patches on their skin. The most probable hypothesis for the aetiology of BD is that of an autoimmune reaction in genetically predisposed individuals, with vasculitis as the main pathological hallmark. Despite many years of research, the specific causes of vitiligo remain obscure, and the most advanced aetiological hypothesis remains that of autoimmunity. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case within the literature of BD associated with vitiligo. The existence of the two different disorders is noteworthy as they were observed in two brothers during the same period in their lives, with very similar clinical observations. [source]