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J Llorca

Publications and source records attributed to J Llorca.

59 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
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[The measurement of inequalities in age of death: calculating the Gini Index based on mortality tables].

The Gini index has been used to gauge the concentration of different variables, including income, the mortality distribution and the spread of physicians. The use of the Gini index for gauging the inequalities in the age of death based on actuarial mortality data. For this purpose, the 1990 age and gender-related mortality figures for each Autonomous Community were used. The inequalities in the number of years lived are greater among males than among females throughout all of the Autonomous Communities. The Communities showing the longest life expectancies are those which have also been revealed to involved the least degree of inequality in the number of years lived, which therefore makes in possible to pinpoint health-care priorities in some cases. The Gini index can be applied to age-related mortality for gauging the degree of inequality in the age of death and to pinpoint age groups on which to place priority with regard to health-care measures.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Hypersensitivity vasculitis in adults: a benign disease usually limited to skin.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the clinical spectrum of hypersensitivity vasculitis (HV) in an unselected population of adults and establish differences between patients with HV limited to the skin and those with systemic involvement. METHODS: Retrospective study of adult patients (> 20 years) with biopsy-proven cutaneous leukocytoclastic vasculitis diagnosed as having HV, who were seen at the single hospital serving a well defined population between 1984 and 1998. Patients were classified as having HV according to the criteria of Michel et al. (9). To examine outcome and relapses of the disease only those patients with a follow-up of at least 1 year were included in this study. RESULTS: 64 patients with a mean follow-up of 4.9 +/- 3.5 (range: 1.1-13.6) years were studied. Ten (15.6%) had visceral involvement (3 gastrointestinal and 7 renal manifestations) during the course of the disease. The remaining patients had a leukocytoclastic vasculitis limited to the skin. When the study was concluded persistent hematuria and proteinuria was only observed in 1 patient and none developed renal insufficiency. Patients with a history of drug treatment and elevated ESR had more systemic complications but the difference was not statistically significant. The outcome was excellent in both patients with HV limited to the skin and in those with systemic complications during the course of the disease. CONCLUSIONS: In unselected adults HV is generally a benign disease confined exclusively to the skin. In those patients with systemic manifestations, visceral involvement is generally mild and transient.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Determinants of the interval between diagnosis and treatment in patients with digestive tract cancer.

The main objective was to analyze the influence of social factors on the interval from diagnosis to treatment in a cohort of 217 patients with digestive tract cancer. From the clinical charts data were obtained for: date of the beginning of illness, dates of medical attendance, type and date of diagnostic tests, characteristics of the disease (symptoms, stage), and date of treatment. From the personal interview we gathered information lacking in the clinical charts such as socio-demographic factors, other underlying diseases, and variables related to life style. The information on hospital admission, diagnosis, and treatment was prospectively gathered, whereas data before hospitalization were retrospectively assessed. In statistical analysis the Kruskal-Wallis test and Cox regression were used. The predictors associated with a shorter diagnosis-treatment period were: low social class, lymphatic involvement at diagnosis, first visit at secondary/tertiary level of health care, no car availability, two or more symptoms at the beginning of disease, sex (male), age (less than 74 years), and diagnosis out of vacation periods. In conclusion, several socio-demographic variables (age, gender, social class, and car availability) influence the interval diagnosis-treatment.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

E-selectin polymorphism in erythema nodosum secondary to sarcoidosis.

OBJECTIVE: E-selectin is expressed on cytokine-stimulated endothelial cells and plays an important role in leukocyte-endothelium interactions and inflammatory cell recruitment. An A/C polymorphism at position +561 in the E-selectin gene, which yields an amino acid exchange from serine to arginine at position 128 in the epidermal growth factor-like domain, has been described. We have assessed whether this bi-allelic polymorphism may be implicated in the clinical expression of erythema nodosum (EN) secondary to sarcoidosis. METHODS: Thirty-one patients with biopsy-proven erythema nodosum (EN) associated with sarcoidosis, 68 patients with biopsy-proven EN related to other etiologies and 66 healthy matched controls from the Lugo region of Northwest Spain were studied. Patients and controls were genotyped for the A/C polymorphism gene by PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism. RESULTS: A significantly reduced frequency of the C mutant allele was observed in patients with EN secondary to sarcoidosis compared to controls (p = 0.019) and also compared to patients with EN unrelated to sarcoidosis (p = 0.028). This was also the case when the distribution of genotypes in patients with sarcoidosis was compared with that observed in patients with EN due to other etiologies (p = 0.028) and controls (p = 0.037). This was due to an absence in both C/A heterozygotes and C/C homozygotes in patients with EN secondary to sarcoidosis. CONCLUSIONS: The present study constitutes the first attempt to assess the influence of E-selectin polymorphism at position +561 in the development of sarcoidosis. The C allele at the +561 position of the E-selectin gene is associated with significantly reduced risk of developing sarcoidosis in patients with EN.

Adult↗