The measurement of body composition is of value in the nutritional assessment of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The purpose of the present study was to compare two bedside methods for the measurement of body composition using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) as a reference method. Fat-free mass (FFM) was measured using DEXA, bioelectric impedance analysis (BI...

During atherogenesis, a pathological accumulation of lipids occurs within aortic intimal macrophages through uptake of plasma oxidised LDL (oxLDL). The aim of the present study was to determine whether macrophage uptake of plasma oxLDL and LDL susceptibility to oxidation may be determined by quantity and quality of dietary fat. Twenty healthy young men were subjected to three dietary periods, e...

It is mostly agreed that arterial adaptations occur, among others, in response to changes in mechanical stimuli. Models like bed rest, spinal cord injury, or limb suspension have been applied to study vascular adaptations to unloading in humans. However, these models cannot distinguish the role of muscle contractions and the role of gravitational accelerations for arterial adaptation. The HEPHA...

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the levels of technical efficiency in agricultural sector of MENA countries by using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) approaches in 2007-2008. The results show that the total average of technical efficiency is as follows: DEABCC(0.770)>DEACCR(0.744)>SFA(0.479), and among all MENA countries, the best performanc...

Saturated fatty acids (SFA), which are abundant in the so-called western diet, have been shown to efficiently incorporate within membrane phospholipids and therefore impact on organelle integrity and function in many cell types. In the present study, we have developed a yeast-based two-step assay and a virtual screening strategy to identify new drugs able to counter SFA-mediated lipointoxicatio...

We read with great interest a series of recently published articles in Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology concerning the range of Amplatzer® Vascular Plugs (AVPs, AGA Medical Corp., Golden Valley, Minnesota, USA) and their increasing applications (1–3). We would like to add our experience with choosing an AVP for the treatment of a rare superficial femoral artery (SFA) aneurysm and raise s...

Obesity is known to decrease the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) against breast cancer; however, the relationship between actual body composition and NAC outcomes remains unknown. Therefore, we determined the effect of body composition on NAC outcomes. A total of 172 advanced breast cancer patients who underwent surgery after NAC were retrospectively analyzed. Body composition parame...

Recommendations limiting the intake of total fat, SFA, MUFA and PUFA have been established in several countries with the aim of reducing the risk of chronic diseases such as CVD. Studies have shown that intakes of total fat and SFA are above desired recommended intake levels across a wide range of age and sex groups. In addition, intakes of PUFA and MUFA are often reported to be less than the d...