OBJECTIVE Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a common extra-articular manifestation of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. The objective of this study was to define high-resolution chest CT (HRCT) and pulmonary function test (PFT) abnormalities capable of identifying asymptomatic, preclinical forms of RA-ILD that may represent precursors to more severe ...

Diverse bacterial species produce pore-forming toxins (PFT) that can puncture eukaryotic cell membranes. Host cells respond to sublytic concentrations of PFT through conserved intracellular signaling pathways, including activation of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK), which are critical to cell survival. Here we demonstrate that in respiratory epithelial cells p38 and JNK MAPK were phosp...

TRAIL and agonistic death receptor-specific antibodies can induce apoptosis in cancer cells with little cytotoxicity to normal cells. To improve TRAIL-induced antitumor effects, we tested its effectiveness in combination with pifithrin (PFT)-μ, which has the potential to inhibit HSP70 function and autophagy, both of which participate in TRAIL resistance in cancer cells. Among the four human pan...

A child receiving busulphan treatment for adult-type chronic myeloid leukaemia responded well for four years before the onset of complications leading to "busulphan lung'. Pulmonary function tests (PFT) were useful in monitoring the development of this condition and we recommended regular PFT for patient receiving busulphan treatment.

While the field of emotions research has benefited from new developments in neuroscience, many theoretical questions remain unsolved. We propose that integrating our iterative reprocessing (IR) framework with the passive frame theory (PFT) may help unify competing theoretical perspectives of emotion. Specifically, we propose that PFT and the IR framework offer a point of origin for emotional ex...

Reliable information about the geographic distribution and abundance of major plant functional types (PFTs) around the world is increasingly needed for global change research. Using remote sensing techniques to map PFTs is a relatively recent field of research. This paper presents a method to map PFTs from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data using a multisource eviden...

Hyperthermia (HT) improves the efficacy of anti-cancer radiotherapy and chemotherapy. However, HT also inevitably evokes stress responses and increases the expression of heat-shock proteins (HSPs) in cancer cells. Among the HSPs, HSP70 is known as a pro-survival protein. In this study, we investigated the sensitizing effect of pifithrin (PFT)-μ, a small molecule inhibitor of HSP70, when three h...

INTRODUCTION Spirometry is a screening tool for evaluating the degree of restrictive lung disease in systemic sclerosis (SSc). Observations indicated that some patients could not complete the test. The aim of the study was to identify the prevalence, causes and clinical predictors of an inadequate pulmonary function test (PFT) in SSc. MATERIAL AND METHODS A cross-sectional study was performed...

OBJECTIVE Fatty liver disease is the most commonly encountered form of chronic liver dysfunction in routine medical care and is closely associated with type 2 diabetes. We aimed to elucidate how the use of new medications affects the incidence of fatty liver disease and amount of visceral fat, both of which are associated with diabetes. METHODS Abdominal ultrasonography was performed to asses...

OBJECTIVE Current clinical trials are investigating the role of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) versus sublobar resection for patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) and marginal pulmonary function tests (M-PFTs). We compared the outcomes of patients undergoing lobectomy with M-PFTs characterized by 2 accepted M-PFT criteria. METHODS A total of 1,259 consecutive patient...