Methods: 95 patients were followed-up for 24-60 months. Serial CTO measurements were performed every 3-6 months and correlated to clinical symptoms, lung function (FVC and DLco) and chest X-ray. In 38 patients clinical outcome status (COS) at 5 years was determined. Results: Initial CTO levels were significantly higher in patients with impaired FVC/DLco (p = 0.011 for both) but there was no correlation with standard chest X-ray stages. Patients with Loefgren’s syndrome had significantly lower initial and control CTO level compared to other patients (p = 0.011 and p = 0.001, respectively). At follow-up there was a positive correlation of CTO and deterioration of clinical symptoms (p smaller than 0.001), chest X-ray

Autophagy assay (p smaller than 0.001) and FVC/DLco (p = 0.012 and p = 0.086, respectively). Control CTO levels were significantly lower in no disease groups versus minimal or persistent disease NU7441 purchase group as defined by COS (p = 0.003 and p smaller than 0.001, respectively). At relapse CTO increased for 100% or more from baseline value in 12/14 patients. Conclusions: It was shown that CTO correlates with certain sarcoidosis phenotypes (Loefgren’s syndrome, COS) and that serial measurements of CTO correlate with clinical symptoms, chest radiographs and lung function.

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“It is known that initial loading curves of soft biological tissues are substantially different from subsequent loadings. The later loading curves are

generally used for assessing the mechanical properties of a tissue, and the first loading cycles, referred to as preconditioning, are omitted. However, slow viscoelastic phenomena related to fluid DZNeP flow or collagen viscoelasticity are initiated during these first preconditioning loading cycles and may persist during the actual data collection. When these data are subsequently used for fitting of material properties, the viscoelastic phenomena that occurred during the initial cycles are not accounted for. The aim of the present study is to explore whether the above phenomena are significant for articular cartilage, by evaluating the effect of such time-dependent phenomena by means of computational modeling. Results show that under indentation, collagen viscoelasticity dominates the time-dependent behavior. Under UC, fluid-dependent effects are more important. Interestingly, viscoelastic and poroelastic effects may act in opposite directions and may cancel each other out in a stress-strain curve. Therefore, equilibrium may be apparent in a stress-strain relationship, even though internally the tissue is not in equilibrium. Also, the time-dependent effects of viscoelasticity and poroelasticity may reinforce each other, resulting in a sustained effect that lasts longer than suggested by their individual effects. Finally, the results illustrate that data collected from a mechanical test may depend on the preconditioning protocol.