AIM To assess whether glycoform variants of human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) are present in altered concentrations in the maternal serum in pregnancies affected by Down syndrome. METHODS In a series of 50 cases of pregnancies complicated by Down syndrome and 278 unaffected pregnancies, we have examined maternal serum levels of hCG glycoforms (GlyhCG) in samples collected in the second trim...

To characterize the distribution of blood pressure (BP), prevalence, and risk factors for hypertension in pediatric chronic kidney disease, we conducted a cross-sectional analysis of baseline BPs in 432 children (mean age 11 years; 60% male; mean glomerular filtration rate 44 mL/min per 1.73 m(2)) enrolled in the Chronic Kidney Disease in Children cohort study. BPs were obtained using an aneroi...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to evaluate in non-hypertensive children following renal transplantation (TX) the rates and determinants of transition to hypertension. METHODS Retrospective case note review of all current paediatric kidney transplant patients in the UK. At baseline (6 months following TX), all included subjects were non-hypertensive with systolic and/or diastolic clinic ...

INTRODUCTION It is unclear whether small dense low-density lipoprotein (sdLDL) are associated with familial combined hyperlipidemia (FCHL), independently of the metabolic syndrome (MS). It is also unclear whether sdLDL are related to history of cardiovascular (CVD) events in FCHL patients, independently of MS. PATIENTS AND METHODS Serum levels of sdLDL, expressed as percentage of total LDL ch...

INTRODUCTION Although studies have shown that childhood obesity overall is on the decline among New York City (NYC) public school children, the prevalence of severe childhood obesity has not been studied. METHODS We used height and weight measurements of 947,765 NYC public school students aged 5 to 14 years in kindergarten through 8th grade (K-8), from school years 2006-07 through 2010-11. We...

Purpose Glucocorticoids are widely used medications. In many pharmacoepidemiological studies, duration of individual prescriptions and definition of treatment episodes are important issues. However, many data sources lack this information. We aimed to estimate duration of individual prescriptions for oral glucocorticoids and to describe continuous treatment episodes using the parametric waiting...

Risk prediction based on genomic profiles has raised a lot of attention recently. However, family history is usually ignored in genetic risk prediction. In this study we proposed a statistical framework for risk prediction given an individual's genotype profile and family history. Genotype information about the relatives can also be incorporated. We allow risk prediction given the current age a...