BACKGROUND AND AIM Several studies have been conducted to examine the associations between osteopontin (OPN) promoter gene SPP1 polymorphisms with human cancers in Chinese population, but the results remain inconsistent. The aim of this meta-analysis is to clarify the associations between SPP1 polymorphisms and cancer susceptibility. METHODS All eligible case-control studies published up to M...

Received January 20, 2012, Revised April 24, 2012, Accepted for publication April 25, 2012 Corresponding author: Jun Young Lee, Department of Dermatology, Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, 222 Banpo-daero, Seocho-gu, Seoul 137-701, Korea. Tel: 82-2-2258-1386, Fax: 82-2-594-3255, E-mail: [email protected] This is an Open Access article distribut...

Background and Purpose—Patients with a carotid artery stenosis, including those with an asymptomatic or moderate stenosis, have a considerable risk of ischemic stroke. Identification of risk factors for cerebrovascular disease in these patients may improve risk profiling and guide new treatment strategies. We cross-sectionally investigated whether carotid stiffness is associated with previous i...

Nutrient and organic matter concentration, microbial biomass and activities were studied at the surface microlayers (SML) and subsurface waters (SSW) in two small forest lakes of different water colour. The SML in polyhumic lake is more enriched with dissolved inorganic nitrogen (0.141 mg l-1) than that of oligohumic lake (0.124 mg l-1), the former also contains higher levels of total nitrogen ...

Few studies in patients with ESRD have examined outcomes in Asian or Pacific Islander subgroups compared with white individuals. The objective of this study was to assess ethnic disparities in mortality and kidney transplantation among a multiethnic cohort of incident dialysis patients. A total of 24,963 patients who initiated dialysis within the TransPacific Renal Network (Network 17) between ...

PURPOSE To analyze results of extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy (SWL) for treatment of ureteral stones with two modern lithotripters. PATIENTS AND METHODS A consecutive series of 598 patients with ureteral stones was treated with the Modulith SLX Classic and Modulith SLX-F2 lithotripters. The mean (SD) age of the patients was 54 (17) years, and the mean (SD) stone surface area was 42 (34) ...

BACKGROUND Trials report a 2% to 6% incidence of reinfarction after fibrinolysis for acute myocardial infarction (MI). We combined the Global Utilization of Streptokinase and Tissue plasminogen activator (alteplase) for Occluded coronary arteries (GUSTO I) and Global Use of Strategies To Open occluded coronary arteries (GUSTO III) populations to better define frequency, timing, and clinical pre...

We thank Conway for his comment (1) on our article in Diabetes Care (2) on the risk of diabetes associated with elevated transferrin saturation levels in two follow-up studies (risk as hazard ratios and exposure preceding disease) and a case-control study (risk as odds ratio) with neither study being cross-sectional. We agree with Conway that the pathophysiology of diabetes is complex. We ackno...

BackgroundGroup B Streptococcus (GBS) disease is a leading cause of neonatal death, but its long-term effects have not been studied after early childhood. The aim this study was to assess mortality, neurodevelopmental impairments (NDIs), and economic outcomes infant invasive GBS (iGBS) up adolescence in Denmark the Netherlands.MethodsFor cohort study, children with iGBS were identified Netherla...