Browsing by Author "Mansmann, U."

Background and purpose: This study aimed to characterize the time course of inflammatory parameters after acute ischemic stroke. Methods: We serially determined high sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP), fibrinogen, and leukocyte counts at 10 time points between days I and 90 after ischemic stroke and in control subjects. Results: CRP did not significantly change, whereas fibrinogen increased after stroke. At all time points, CRP and fibrinogen were higher than in healthy control subjects, but not risk factor control subjects. The leukocyte count declined after stroke and was significantly elevated as compared to both control groups only on day 1 but not later. NIHSS levels were positively correlated with CRP and fibrinogen at all time points. Larger infarcts were associated with a higher CRP and leukocyte counts on day 90. Treatment with aspirin was associated with lower values for all three inflammatory parameters in the subacute phase after ischemia. Conclusions: The course after stroke was different between the parameters of inflammation. Only the leukocytes followed the paradigm of an acute phase response. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Objectives: With the collection of articles presented in this special issue, we aim at educating interested statisticians and biometricians on the one hand as well as biologists and medical researchers on the other with respect to basic necessities in planning, conducting and analyzing microarray gene expression experiments. The reader should get comprehensive directions to understand both the overall structure of this approach as well as the decisive details, which enable - or thwart - a meaningful data analysis. Methods: For a one-day workshop with tutorial character we brought together experts in design, conduct and analysis of microarray gene expression experiments who prepared a series of comprehensive lessons. These contributions were then reworked into a series of introductory articles and bundled in form and content as a Special Topic. Results: It was possible to present a tutorial overview of the field. The interested reader was able to learn the basic necessities and was referred to further references for details on the possible alternatives. A recipe style all-embracing plan, covering all eventualities and possibilities was not only beyond the scope of an introductory tutorial-like presentation, but was also not yet agreed upon by the scientific society. Conclusions: It proved feasible to find a framework for integrating the interdisciplinary approaches to the challenging field of gene expression analysis with microarrays, hopefully contributing to a rapid and comprehensive introduction for novices.