OBJECTIVE There is a need for a simple and accurate method for the assessment of cardiovascular risk in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Lipid accumulation product (LAP) is based on the assessment of waist circumference and serum triglycerides that yield an estimation of lipid overaccumulation. We aimed to determine whether LAP is associated with metabolic syndrome (MetS) in Caucasian women wi...

To determine whether pulmonary venous flow and mitral inflow measured by transesophageal pulsed Doppler echocardiography can be used to estimate mean left atrial pressure (LAP), we prospectively studied 47 consecutive patients undergoing cardiovascular surgery. We correlated Doppler variables of pulmonary venous flow and mitral inflow with simultaneously obtained mean LAP and changes in pressur...

Regulatory T cells (Tregs) comprise numerous heterogeneous subsets with distinct phenotypic and functional features. Identifying Treg markers is critical to investigate the role and clinical impact of various Treg subsets in pathological settings, and also for developing more effective immunotherapies. We have recently shown that non-activated FoxP3-Helios+ and activated FoxP3+/-Helios+ CD4+ T ...

PURPOSE To find parameters that can increase alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) sensitivity and so help in accurate diagnosis and rapid management of hepatocullular carcinoma (HCC), as AFP has limited utility of distinguishing HCC from benign hepatic disorders for its high false-positive and false negative rates. MATERIALS AND METHODS Serum levels of AFP, 5'-nucleotidase enzyme activity (5-NU) and leuci...

BACKGROUND Classic bone lengthening requires patients wear external fixation for the distraction and consolidation phases and there is fracture risk after frame removal. Our technique of lengthening with the Taylor Spatial Frame(TM) and then insertion of a locked plate allows earlier removal of the external fixator during consolidation. Plate insertion is accomplished through a clean pin-free z...

A major challenge in the current computer-aided detection (CAD) of polyps in CT colonography (CTC) is to reduce the number of false positive (FP) detections while maintaining a high sensitivity level. A pattern-recognition technique based on the use of an arti cial neural network (ANN) as a lter, which is called a massivetraining ANN (MTANN), has been developed recently for this purpose. The MT...

Semi-supervised learning utilizes labeled data and the geometric information in unlabeled to construct a model whereas supervised makes use of only label data. So, semi-supervised establishes more reasonable classifier. In recent years, Laplacian support vector machine (Lap-SVM) has received lot interest framework classification. To develop performance Lap-SVM, twin (Lap-TSVM) shown exceptional...

Echinococcus granulosus is the causative agent of cystic echinococcosis (CE), a widespread parasitic zoonosis. Leucine aminopeptidases (LAPs) of the M17 peptidase family have important functions in regulating the balance of catabolism and anabolism, cell maintenance, growth and defense. In this study, we presented a bioinformatic characterization and experimentally determined the tissue distrib...

OBJECTIVE CD4(+) latency-associated peptide (LAP)(+) regulatory T cells (Tregs) are a newly discovered T cell subset in humans and the role of these cells in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) has not been explored. We designed to investigate whether circulating frequency and function of CD4(+)LAP(+) Tregs are defective in ACS. METHODS One hundred eleven ACS patients (acute myocardia...

BACKGROUND/AIM It was previously reported that collagenous extracellular matrix (ECM) in human capsular opacification contained isoforms of transforming growth factor beta (TGFbeta). In the present study, the authors performed immunohistochemistry to examine whether ECM in human capsular opacification and in cultures of bovine lens epithelial cells (LECs) contained latent TGFbeta binding protei...