Resultados de pesquisa

During product development, ideas are narrowed down to a single one by the designers in order to satisfy the customers#8217; needs. This process is called concept selection and is crucial to the development of new products because, from this point onward, the design team is committed to a concept whose modification implies delays and additional costs.Decisions made during the concept selection phase are often difficult due to the uncertainty caused by the lack of objective data. However, it is possible to reduce this uncertainty assessing each concept#8217;s expected costs and benefits.Medical devices, before entering the market, are scrutinized by several agencies around the world to assess their clinical- and cost-effectiveness. In order to reduce the uncertainty associated with concept selection, the parameters evaluated by the mult...

A research project on antiviral drug resistance of influenza viruses circulating in Portugal has been carried out since 2007. Here, the first results obtained regarding the evaluation of susceptibility to amantadine and oseltamivir are presented. Information about antiviral prescription and exposure was available through the National Influenza Surveillance Programme. Amantadine susceptibility was evaluated by pyrosequencing for known resistance markers on 178 influenza A strains from 2004/2005 to 2006/2007. Susceptibility to oseltamivir was evaluated by 50% inhibitory concentration determination on 340 virus strains from 2004/2005 to 2008/2009, 134 of which were further analyzed by sequencing of the neuraminidase gene. This study revealed that influenza antiviral drugs were rarely prescribed at national level. Resistance to amantadine...

A research project on antiviral drug resistance of influenza viruses circulating in Portugal has been carried out since 2007. Here, the first results obtained regarding the evaluation of susceptibility to amantadine and oseltamivir are presented. Information about antiviral prescription and exposure was available through the National Influenza Surveillance Programme. Amantadine susceptibility was evaluated by pyrosequencing for known resistance markers on 178 influenza A strains from 2004/2005 to 2006/2007. Susceptibility to oseltamivir was evaluated by 50% inhibitory concentration determination on 340 virus strains from 2004/2005 to 2008/2009, 134 of which were further analyzed by sequencing of the neuraminidase gene. This study revealed that influenza antiviral drugs were rarely prescribed at national level. Resistance to amantadine ...

Abdominal aortic aneurysms are indolent but deadly. Among the current treatments is endovascular aneurysm repair, a minimally invasive procedure that resorts to a stent-graft to shield the aortic wall from blood pressure. Although this procedure allowed more patients to be treated and offers several other advantages, complications still occur and there is a need for a more efficient stent-graft. Here, the early steps performed in the development of a novel stent-graft are described, and desired features for an "ideal" device are pointed out. The implementation of these characteristics will lead to a more efficient medical device.