BACKGROUND Stroke is characterized by an asymmetrical gait pattern that causes poor stability and reduces overall activity levels. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of whole-body vibration combined with treadmill training (WBV-TT) on walking performance in patients with chronic stroke. MATERIAL AND METHODS Thirty ambulatory chronic stroke patients were randomly allocated to th...

BACKGROUND The beneficial effects of testosterone treatment (TT) are debated. METHODS Double-blinded, placebo-controlled study of six months TT (gel) in 54 men aged 60-78 with bioavailable testosterone (BioT) <7.3 nmol/L and waist >94 cm randomized to TT (50-100 mg/day, n = 20), placebo (n = 18), or strength training (ST) (n = 16) for 24 weeks. Moreover, the ST group was randomized to TT (n =...

AIM The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between a vitamin D receptor polymorphism and the diagnosis of periodontal disease in non-smoker Italian patients with aggressive and chronic periodontitis. MATERIALS AND METHODS DNA was obtained from the internal cheek mucosa of 115 patients with chronic periodontitis, 58 with aggressive periodontitis and 65 healthy controls. Allel...

We performed this study to investigate the possible association between vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene polymorphism and the focal bone erosion in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients in Korea. One hundred and fifty-seven RA patients were enrolled and two control groups were selected. The focal bone erosion score was assessed by modified Sharp's method. Genotyping of VDR polymorphisms was performed...

A highly organized transverse-tubule (TT) system is essential to normal Ca2+ cycling and cardiac function. We explored the relationship between the progressive disruption of TTs and resulting Ca2+ cycling during the development of heart failure (HF). Confocal imaging was used to measure Ca2+ transients and 2-D z-stack images in left ventricular epicardial myocytes of intact hearts from spontane...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the relationship between serum total testosterone (TT) level and lipid profile after adjusting for some traditional confounding factors, free thyroid hormones and TSH in Chinese men. METHODS This was a retrospective study based on an epidemiological investigation including 11 000 subjects. Bivariate and partial correlation analysis, multiple linear regression analysis, a...

BACKGROUND Diagnostic manufacturers must ensure/document metrologically traceable assays. We report on a feasibility study of a split-sample comparison for that purpose. Processed, frozen single-donation sera, assigned target values by candidate reference measurement procedures (cRMPs), were used with immunoassays for total thyroxine (TT(4)) and triiodothyronine (TT(3)) as models. METHODS Two...

T and Td loci control pubescence color of soybean with epistatic effects (TT TdTd, tawny; TT tdtd, light tawny or near-gray; tt TdTd or tt tdtd, gray). The objective of this study was to investigate the nature of flavonoids in the pubescence of near-isogenic lines (NILs) for these loci. Flavonoids were extracted with methanol from pubescence of cultivar Clark with tawny pubescence (TT TdTd) and...

The effect of rabbit antiidiotypic antibody raised against human IgG F(ab')2 anti-tetanus toxoid (TT) antibodies on the in vitro synthesis of TT-specific IgE antibody by peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) was examined in three subjects. Two of these subjects were allergic twins whose sera persistently contained IgE anti-TT antibodies. The third subject was a nonallergic individual who had a sli...

Tank-treading (TT) motion is established in optically trapped, live red blood cells (RBCs) held in shear flow and is systematically investigated under varying shear rates, temperature (affecting membrane viscosity), osmolarity (resulting in changes in RBC shape and cytoplasmic viscosity), and viscosity of the suspending medium. TT frequency is measured as a function of membrane and cytoplasmic ...