In a study published this month in Frontiers in Applied Genetic Epidemiology (Zhi et al., 2012), the authors have studied left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), the thickening of the myocardium of the left ventricle of the heart, which is a trait that can be used as heritable predictor of cardiovascular disease, to identify genomic variants and genes that could be used as predictive markers of inc...

Background ANCA associated vasculitides (AAVs) are rare, serious forms of vasculitides. There limited data regarding the quality life in patients with AAVs compared to other chronic inflammatory diseases. Objectives The purpose this study was compare between AAV and those a arthritis such as rheumatoid (RA). Methods Multicenter, cross-sectional RA followed three tertiary referral centers. Data ...

The Australian Mycobacterium Reference Laboratory Network collects and analyses laboratory data on new cases of disease caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. In 2010, a total of 1,051 cases were identified by bacteriology; an annual reporting rate of 4.7 cases per 100,000 population. Twelve children aged less than 10 years had bacteriologically-confirmed tuberculosis. Results of in ...

Fluoroquinolone (FQ)-resistant extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli (FQ(r) ExPEC) strains from phylogenetic group B2 are undergoing epidemic spread. Isolates belonging to phylogenetic group B2 are generally more virulent than other E. coli isolates; therefore, resistance to FQs among group B2 isolates is concerning. Although clonal expansion of sequence type 131 (ST131) is a major factor...

STUDY QUESTION What is the burden of X chromosome mosaicism in the occurrence of spontaneous menarche (SM) in Turner syndrome (TS)? SUMMARY ANSWER SM was significantly associated with X chromosome mosaicism in the TS patients; a mosaicism with around 10% euploid cell line may predict spontaneous pubertal development when determined by molecular-cytogenetic techniques on uncultivated tissues. ...

Airway epithelial cells are constantly exposed to environmental insults such as air pollution or tobacco smoke that may contain high levels of reactive nitrogen and reactive oxygen species. Previous work from our laboratory demonstrated that the reactive oxygen species (ROS), hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)), specifically activates neutral sphingomyelinase 2 (nSMase2) to generate ceramide and induc...

Background Overweight and/or obese patients with inflammatory arthritis (IA) have higher disease activity and lower chances of achieving as well maintaining the treatment targets. Obesity also appears to negatively affect response tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors in IA. The efficacy other biologic (b) targeted-synthetic (ts) DMARDs overweight/obese IA, including rheumatoid –RA, psoriatic ...

Background: Axial involvement affects 25-70% of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) patients, depending on the criteria used for its definition. Efforts are underway to clarify similarities and differences between axial-PsA ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Objectives: We aimed compare, in a real-world setting, AS, terms demographic, radiologic clinical (musculoskeletal extra-articular) characteristics, with ...

In this work, the problems in the identification of the parameters of mechanical joint directly from the measured frequency response functions (FRFs) of the structure were discussed. The problems include the problem of measurement noise, the problem of using the least squares method and the problem due to the characteristics of the structure itself. The causes of the problems and the associated...

mRNA of placental origin, including chromosome 21encoded mRNA, can be detected reliably in maternal plasma during the first trimester of pregnancy (1, 2). The presence and detectability of placental RNA in maternal plasma permits rapid screening of new markers to test their feasibility for use in noninvasive prenatal diagnostic assays. In contrast to conventional protein-based assays, new marke...