BACKGROUND We carried out a three months follow-up study on the efficacy of metadoxine in a cohort of alcoholics admitted to the Alcohol misuse Long-term Treatment (ALT) Unit-University of Pisa (Italy). We analyzed the clinical data, psychometric tests and blood tests of 160 alcoholics on admission and after 3 months of treatment. We compared 58 pts treated with metadoxine (MET) with 102 pts wh...

Body mass index (BMI) has been shown to be associated with host susceptibility to several infections. However, the link between BMI and the risk of tuberculosis (TB) infection has been sparsely studied in China and in worldwide. Based on the baseline survey of a population-based, prospective study in rural China, the association between BMI and TB infection among adults was estimated by means o...

BACKGROUND Patient-centered models of assessment have shown considerable promise for increasing patients' readiness for mental health treatment in general, but have not been used to facilitate patients' engagement in substance use disorder (SUD) treatment. We developed a brief patient-centered intervention using assessment and feedback of personality data and examined its acceptability and effi...

OBJECTIVES Although there is a common clinical assumption that bipolar disorder with psychotic features reflects greater severity than bipolar disorder without psychosis, the existing empirical literature is mixed. This study investigated the phenomenology of psychosis as well as demographic, clinical, functional, and neuropsychological features in a large, cross-sectional sample of participant...

Introduction: Allium cepa is a biological material of great importance for mutagenicity tests, due to the simplicity of its use in testing, the fast growth of its roots, and the response of genetic material to the presence of substances with cytotoxic and genotoxic potential. Method: The Allium test model by using the onion seed (Alium cepa L.) without the use of pesticides or any other chemica...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Malaria is one of the leading public health challenges in Ethiopia. To address this, the Federal Ministry of Ethiopia launched a laboratory diagnosis programme for promoting use of either rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) or Giemsa microscopy to all suspected malaria cases. This study was conducted to assess the performance of RDT and influencing factors for Giemsa microscop...

BACKGROUND Several studies have been carried out to evaluate the effects of dialysis on pulmonary function tests (PFT). Dialysis procedure may reduce lung volumes and capacities or cause hypoxia; however, to the best of our knowledge, there is no previous study evaluating the effects of membrane type (high flux vs. low flux) on PFT in these patients. The aim of this study was the evaluation of ...

PURPOSE We describe a pediatric visual field (VF) test based on a computer game where software and hardware combine to provide an enjoyable test experience. METHODS The test software consists of a platform-based computer game presented to the central VF. A storyline was created around the game as was a structure surrounding the computer monitor to enhance patients' experience. The patient is ...

CONTEXT Behçet's disease (BD) is a multisystemic inflammatory disorder with unknown etiology. Many immunological changes were reported in BD previously and these changes may affect the frequency of contact sensitivity in these patients. OBJECTIVE We aimed to identify whether there is an interaction between contact sensitivity and BD. METHODS The 'European standard series' with 27 allergens ...