Biomedical subjects

Manuel de Vega

Publications and source records attributed to Manuel de Vega.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2004

Results of an organ preservation protocol with induction chemotherapy and radiotherapy in patients with locally advanced laryngeal carcinoma.

An alternative treatment in patients with advanced laryngeal carcinoma who are candidates for total laryngectomy is induction chemotherapy and radical radiotherapy in an organ preservation approach. We conducted a study to evaluate results of this treatment in patients with locally advanced laryngeal carcinoma, candidates for total laryngectomy, who were treated at a single institution between 1985 and 1997. During the study period, 224 began treatment with induction chemotherapy. Induction chemotherapy consisted of three cycles of cisplatin and 5-fluoruracil in the majority of cases. Four patients died as a consequence of complications associated with chemotherapy treatment. Subsequent treatment consisted of total laryngectomy in 79 patients and radical radiotherapy in 141. After radical radiotherapy, local control for patients who achieved a complete response after induction chemotherapy was 74%, significantly better than 57% in patients with a non-complete response (P=0.04). Considering the initial group of 224 patients, the frequency of organ preservation was 39%. Considering only the patients treated with induction chemotherapy and radiotherapy, the organ preservation frequency was 62%. In a multivariate study, only the response after induction chemotherapy was significantly related to organ preservation.

Antineoplastic Agents↗

PubMed2004

Event-related brain potentials elicited by morphological, homographic, orthographic, and semantic priming.

The morphological structure of words, in terms of their stem morphemes and affixes, could influence word access and representation in lexical memory. Three experiments were carried out to explore the attributes of event-related potentials evoked by different types of priming. Morphological priming, with pairs of words related by their stem (hijo/hija [ son/ daughter]), produced a sustained attenuation (and even a tendency to positivity) of the N400 shown by unrelated words across the three experiments. Homographic priming (Experiment 1), using pairs of words with a superficially similar stem, but without morphological or semantic relation (foco/foca [floodlight/seal]), produced an initial attenuation similar to the morphological pairs, but which rapidly tended to form a delayed N400, due to the impossibility of integration. However, orthographic priming (rasa/rana [flat/frog]) in Experiment 2 does not produce attenuation of the N400 but an effect similar to that of unrelated pairs. Experiment 3 shows that synonyms advance more slowly than morphological pairs to meaning coherence, but finally produce a more positive peak around 600 msec.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed2004

On doing two things at once: temporal constraints on actions in language comprehension.

In two experiments, we investigated how text comprehension is influenced by the interaction between the properties of actions and the temporal relations specified by adverbs. Participants read short narratives describing a protagonist who performed two actions that involved similar sensorimotor systems (e.g., chopping wood and painting a fence) or different ones (e.g., whistling a melody and painting a fence). The actions were described as simultaneous or successive by means of the temporal adverbs while and after, respectively. Comprehension, both in Spanish and in English, was markedly impaired (longer reading times and lower subjective coherence) for sentences including the adverb while and actions involving the same sensorimotor system. However, when one of the same sensorimotor system actions was described as a mental plan (e.g., chopping wood and thinking of painting a fence), comprehension was equally easy with the adverbs while and after. These results are compatible with a revised version of the indexical hypothesis that specifies how comprehension is guided by syntax and embodied constraints within multiple noninteracting mental spaces.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

The effect of waiting time on local control and survival in head and neck carcinoma patients treated with radiotherapy.

PURPOSE: To determine the influence of waiting time for radiotherapy on local control and survival in a cohort of patients with head and neck carcinoma of different locations and stages treated with radiotherapy. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Retrospective study of 797 patients with squamous cell carcinoma located in the oral cavity, pharynx or larynx, treated with radiotherapy, and with a minimum follow-up of 3 years. Local recurrence and survival were analyzed in function of the waiting time, defined as the interval between date of histologic diagnosis and date of radiotherapy. A univariate and multivariate analysis was carried out. RESULTS: Median waiting time to radiotherapy was 44 days (25 and 75% quartiles: 33 and 60 days). There were significant differences in the waiting time period in relation to the primary location and the local extension of the tumor. Both univariate and multivariate analysis showed that waiting time had no significant impact either on local control or survival. CONCLUSION: Within the range of the waiting time observed in our study, delay in the initiation of radiotherapy did not affect local control or survival in patients with head and neck carcinoma.

Aged↗

PubMed2002

Human brain potentials indicate morphological decomposition in visual word recognition.

Stem homographs are pairs of words with the same orthographic description of their stem but which are semantically and morphologically unrelated (e.g. in Spanish: rata/rato (rat/moment)). In priming tasks, stem homographs produce inhibition, unlike morphologically related words (loca/loco (madwoman/madman)) which produce facilitation. An event-related potentials study was conducted to compare morphological and stem homographic priming effects. The results show a similar attenuation of the N400 component at the 350-500 ms temporal window for the two conditions. In contrast, a broad negativity occurs only for stem homographs at the 500-600 ms window. This late negativity is interpreted as the consequence of an inhibitory effect for stem homographs that delays the stage of meaning integration.

Adult↗