With an increase of the population of elderly people in modern society due to advances in medicine and healthcare facilities, there is also an increase in the incidence and duration of chronic illnesses. Similarly, advanced age is considered a significant determinant of depression and poor quality of life. Additionally, the provision of therapies relevant to chronic diseases addresses the issues beyond the concept of cure, bringing to the center the need for a dignified quality of life of patients. An increased interest in quality of life is observed in patients who suffer from chronic diseases, including those with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD). End-stage kidney disease patients have a high burden of disease affecting their quality of life and dramatically shortening their life expectancy. Therefore, exploring quality of life issues among such patients becomes an essential task in the management of this population. This volume is written by researchers with a well-rounded understanding of the characteristics and impact of ESKD and provides a penetrating practical discussion to date of alternative approaches for comprehensively measuring the burden of end-stage kidney disease. Outcomes Assessment in End-Stage Kidney Disease focuses on the impact of this complex and exacting condition on patients and those that care for them. It also examines the economic impact of ESKD and the healthcare policy implications of this disease. It also brings comprehensive and thoughtful insights into the issues confronted by patients with ESKD to readers interested in nursing or medical caregiving, geriatrics and health psychology.

Frontiers in Clinical Drug Research – Central Nervous System presents the latest research and clinical studies on the central nervous system (CNS). It covers a range of topics such as the development and pathophysiology of the brain and spinal cord, physiological sites of drug action in the CNS and clinical findings on drugs used to treat CNS defects due to injury or impaired development. In addition to clinical research on humans, the book also highlights other avenues of CNS medicine and research such as pain medicine, stem cell research, pharmacology, toxicology and translational models in animals. The first volume of the series features chapters on the following topics: -Nerve targets in pain medicine -Spinal cord injury -Research on neurotoxins targeting voltage gated ion channels -G protein coupled receptor agonists and modulators -Drug research on mediating hypoxia in developing white matter

- Frontiers in Clinical Drug Research - CNS and Neurological Disorders is an ebook series that brings updated reviews to readers interested in advances in the development of pharmaceutical agents for the treatment of central nervous system (CNS) and other nerve disorders. The scope of the ebook series covers a range of topics including the medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, molecular biology and biochemistry of contemporary molecular targets involved in neurological and CNS disorders. Reviews presented in the series are mainly focused on clinical and therapeutic aspects of novel drugs intended for these targets. Frontiers in Clinical Drug Research - CNS and Neurological Disorders is a valuable resource for pharmaceutical scientists and postgraduate students seeking updated and critical information for developing clinical trials and devising research plans in the field of neurology. The second volume of this series features 8 chapters that cover a variety of topics including: -treatment of multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia -neurochemistry of tremors -relationship between GABA and Alzheimer’s disease therapy -relationship between neurological diseases and cancer -research on angiogenesis-related blindness

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is currently recognized as an untreatable, progressive, degenerative and terminal disease that is globally afflicting an estimated 36 million people and this number is growing in an unabated and frightening manner. Advances in Alzheimer Research, provides researchers with an integrated approach to AD academic literature ranging from basic to advanced clinical research. The series highlights the latest information in order to unravel the origin, pathogenesis and prevention of AD. The purpose of this book series is, therefore, to capture and discuss both, improvements towards the diagnosis and potential treatment of AD by established and novel strategies. This first volume of the series provides an important mechanism to bring individuals having a variety of scientific interests and expertise under one roof to specifically focus on AD and related dementias. This volume presents articles on beta amyloid protein targets as well as research on secretase enzyme systems among other topics that deal with AD therapy.

Since a September, 1992, Nature article which read: “Can there be life without LIF?”, researchers now realize that the maternal immune system is both a foe (it can reject the conception) and a friend (immune cells and molecules are also necessary for successful pregnancy). Leukemia Inhibitory Factor (LIF) when absent, prevents embryo implantation in rodents. From fecundation to parturition, immunity acts as a Janus, required but potentially dangerous. However, the complexity and the diversity of immunity in pregnancy deters many from entering the field. This book will try to give a complete overview of immunity from gametes till parturition, in brief, but with complete chapters and subsections, each written by specialists in the field. The importance of the topic relies not only on “the riddle of the fetal allograft”, which is per se fascinating, but on its consequences, linked to the development of IVF and in general, Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) / Medicine. Since the discovery that there would not be (mammalian) life without LIF, it has become clear that Immune Molecules, and in general, transient post mating inflammatory reactions are required for successful implantation. Disruptions of this process can lead to implantation failure / sterility. In later stages of pregnancy immunological cells, mostly of the innate immune system, control formation of local spiral arteries. Finally, a state of tolerance establishes itself, whose “break’ leads to immune abortion and the vascular bed is further transformed and enlarged, till delivery, and here again “immunological cytokines” do play a major role and can eventually cause immune mediated abortion. Failure of, not just, the cytokine and cell recognition mediated dialogue, but also the pre and peri-implantation “preparation of the uterus”, as stated, leads to sterility, early pregnancy loss and recurrent abortions. There is also an increasingly stronger argument to implicate immunology in pre-eclampsia. Further still, immunology is also implicated in the control of local infection, mother to child transmission of pathogens (notably, but not limited to, HIV). Finally, pregnancy is the only known physiological phenomenon where the once named “suppressor T cells,” re-emerge as “regulatory T cells”, and play a cardinal role. This E-book provides a complete compendium of gynecological immunology, spanning from fecundation to delivery. Topics also include the role of various cell types (such as T regs ad NK cells) in implantation and uterine changes as well as the genetic regulation of immunological processes. As such it will be of interest not only to fundamental and reproductive immunologists, but more importantly, clinicians in obstetrics and gynecology.

Despite the high impact on human health caused by Tuberculosis (TB) infections worldwide, nearly 45 years have passed since a novel drug was introduced for its treatment. As MDR-TB and XDR-TB cases rise globally new strategies and drugs are desperately needed to address this problem. Tuberculosis Treatment: The Search For New Drugs covers a wide range of topics about TB drug discovery. The e-book begins with historical information about Tuberculosis discovery and treatment and explores modern treatment strategies, formulations (synthetic and natural) and class of compounds. The extraction of important drugs from various sources is also covered in separate chapters along with information about promising drugs undergoing clinical testing. The e-book is a useful reference for readers interested in learning about the array of pharmaceuticals discovered and used to combat Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections.

This monograph offers the reader an integrated point-of-view about the inflammatory response related to injury, infections and tumors. This integration is based on the hypothesis that the multiple pathophysiological mechanisms making up inflammation represent the re-expression of ontogenic mechanisms during early embryo development as well as the recapitulation of ancestral phylogenetic mechanisms. The relevance of the anti-inflammatory treatments is also highlighted with respect to polytraumatic patients, advances in stem cell research, embryology and the wound healing mechanism. Readers of this book will have the chance of gaining a unique perspective about of the pathophysiological mechanisms involved in the multiple inflammatory conditions. This integrative concept about inflammation can be applied in biological investigation, as well as in clinical research and translational medicine.

This reference presents basic concepts relevant to respiratory function in normal and diseased states.The volume stresses a quantitative approach to physical parameters used as indicators of normal and diseased physiological respiratory function. The contents of this reference allow medical students and physiology researchers to become “clinical detectives” - by presenting information that can be useful for enhancing their understanding of the major abnormalities in terms of ventilation, pulmonary blood perfusion, venous admixture, wasted alveolar ventilation, tissue oxygenation, acid-base balance, respiratory mechanics, control of breathing, etc. This book is intended for first and second year medical students as well as for residents and fellows, especially in disciplines such as anesthesiology and pulmonary medicine. In addition, the unique mechanistic approach of this book also provides a useful reference for teachers of respiratory physiology who are not involved in respiratory research or those who have not been specifically trained in organ-system physiology. This book thus fills this gap by providing a modern physiology faculty some tools for learning the “nuts-and-bolts” of lung physiology and associated respiratory care.

Frontiers in Clinical Drug Research - Alzheimer Disorders is an e-Book series concerned with Alzheimer's disease (AD) that causes dementia, or loss of brain function. The disease affects the parts of the brain that deal with memory, thought, and language. Chapters in each volume focus on (Alzheimer Disorders) drug research with special emphasis on clinical trials, research on drugs in advanced stages of development and cure for Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders. Frontiers in Clinical Drug Research - Alzheimer Disorders will be of particular interest to readers interested in drug therapy of this specific neurodegenerative condition and related brain disorders as the series provides relevant reviews written by experts in field of Alzheimer’s Disease research.