Filtyp
Purpose: To test the potential of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in early detection of left ventricular (LV) dysfunction in patients with pulmonary regurgitation and normal LV ejection fraction after repair of tetralogy of Fallot. Materials and Methods: Patients (n = 18) with repaired tetralogy of Fallot and pulmonary regurgitation were prospectively recruited. Healthy volunteers (n = 10) were u
BACKGROUND. High resolution spatial details of the distribution of activity in three dimensions is required to evaluate the localization and dosimetric properties of radiolabelled monoclonal antibodies in tumors and normal tissues. Planar imaging of small animals with a resolution of 5-10 mm is usually the imaging modality of choice. The authors investigated high resolution single-photon emission
Real-time PCR is fast, sensitive, specific, and can deliver quantitative data; however, two disadvantages are that this technology is sensitive to inhibition by food and that it does not distinguish between DNA originating from viable, viable nonculturable (VNC), and dead cells. For this reason, real-time PCR has been combined with a novel discontinuous buoyant density gradient method, called flot
Objective: Resistin is a secreted factor that is elevated in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and believed to drive joint inflammation in vivo. This study was undertaken to determine if resistin is present in the joint following joint injury and to elucidate the role of resistin in cartilage degradation. Methods: The level of resistin was measured in paired synovial fluid (SF) and serum samples from pati
Helicobacter pylori can transform, in vivo as well as in vitro, from dividing spiral-shaped forms into nonculturable coccoids, with intermediate forms called U forms. The importance of nonculturable coccoid forms of H. pylori in disease transmission and antibiotic treatment failures is unclear. Metabolic activities of actively growing as well as nonculturable H. pylori were investigated by compari
Objective: To develop a short measure of physical function for knee osteoarthritis (OA) using multi-national data from. individuals with varying degrees of severity of knee OA. Methods: Rasch analysis, based on the partial credit model, was conducted on Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score and Western Ontario McMaster Universities' Osteoarthritis Index data from individuals with knee OA, r
INTRODUCTION AND MATERIALS AND METHODS: G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) play an important role in platelet aggregation. To identify new platelet GPCRs, a platelet gene expression profile was generated and validated using quantitative real-time PCR. RESULTS: In total, mRNA of 28 GPCR genes was detected in human platelets. The 12 most abundant platelet GPCR transcripts were: thrombin receptor PA
A wealth of biospecimen samples are stored in modern globally distributed biobanks. Biomedical researchers worldwide need to be able to combine the available resources to improve the power of large-scale studies. A prerequisite for this effort is to be able to search and access phenotypic, clinical and other information about samples that are currently stored at biobanks in an integrated manner. H
BACKGROUND: An increasing number of young patients are undergoing knee arthroplasties. Thus, the long-term risks of having a knee prosthesis must be evaluated. This study focuses on the potential carcinogenic effects of the prosthesis; it is a long-term follow-up of all patients in Sweden between 1975 and 2006. METHODS: The incidence of cancer in a total population of operated individuals was comp
Diabetic kidney disease, or diabetic nephropathy (DN), is a major complication of diabetes and the leading cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) that requires dialysis treatment or kidney transplantation. In addition to the decrease in the quality of life, DN accounts for a large proportion of the excess mortality associated with type 1 diabetes (T1D). Whereas the degree of glycemia plays a pivo
Children's blood-lead concentration (B-Pb) is well studied, but little is known about cadmium (B-Cd) and mercury (B-Hg), in particular for central Europe. Such information is necessary for risk assessment and management. Therefore, we here describe and compare B-Pb, B-Cd and B-Hg in children in six European, and three non-European cities, and identify determinants of these exposures. About 50 scho
Prior study children from a DTaP efficacy trial were recruited at ages 5 and 15 years to randomized booster trials addressing immunogenicity and reactogenicity; 475 preschool children received mixed or separate injections of a reduced antigen vaccine (Tdap5, Sanofi Pasteur MSD) and an inactivated polio vaccine, and 230 adolescents received the same or another booster vaccine (Tdap1, SSI, Denmark).
As the correlation of bone mass from childhood to adulthood is unclear, we conducted a long-term prospective observational study to determine if a pediatric bone mass scan could predict adult bone mass. We measured cortical bone mineral content (BMC [g]), bone mineral density (BMD [g/cm(2)]), and bone width (cm) in the distal forearm by single photon absorptiometry in 120 boys and 94 girls with a
BACKGROUND: A fracture in childhood is associated with low bone mineral density (BMD), but it is debated whether a fracture at growth also predicts low BMD in young adulthood. PURPOSE: To gender-specifically evaluate whether children with a fracture are at increased risk of low BMD in young adulthood. METHODS: Distal forearm BMD (g/cm(2) ) was measured with single photon absorptiometry (SPA) i
Low-grade inflammation has been repeatedly associated with cardiovascular diseases but the relationship with incidence of atrial fibrillation (AF) remains unclear. We explored the association between elevated plasma levels of inflammation-sensitive proteins (ISPs) and incidence of AF in a population-based cohort. Plasma levels of five ISPs (fibrinogen, haptoglobin, ceruloplasmin, α(1)-antitrypsin
To describe the prevalence of, risk factors for, and prognostic importance of gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding and use of acid suppressants in acutely ill adult intensive care patients. We included adults without GI bleeding who were acutely admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) during a 7-day period. The primary outcome was clinically important GI bleeding in ICU, and the analyses included esti
Purpose: To externally validate and compare the performance of previously published diagnostic models developed to predict malignancy in adnexal masses. Experimental Design: We externally validated the diagnostic performance of 11 models developed by the International Ovarian Tumor Analysis (IOTA) group and 12 other (non-IOTA) models on 997 prospectively collected patients. The non-IOTA models inc
Avian malaria (Plasmodium spp.) and other blood parasitic infections of birds constitute increasingly popular model systems in ecological and evolutionary host-parasite studies. Field studies of these parasites commonly use two traits in hypothesis testing: infection status (or prevalence at the population level) and parasitaemia, yet the causes of variation in these traits remain poorly understoo
Objective: Prior studies investigating the association between APOE alleles epsilon 2/epsilon 4 and risk of intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) have been inconsistent and limited to small sample sizes, and did not account for confounding by population stratification or determine which genetic risk model was best applied. Methods: We performed a large-scale genetic association study of 2189 ICH cases an
