Methods A total of 179 patients, who underwent CABG, within an eight month period from September 2011, took part in this prospective study. For the information acquisition, the General Health Evaluation questionnaires SF-36 (Short Form Health Survey), SF-6D, EQ-5D, 15D and the disease specific questionnaire Coronary Revascularization Outcome Questionnaire (CROQ) were used prior surgery and thre...

The thiazolidinedione (TZD) class of antidiabetic drugs, which are ligands for peroxisome proliferator–activated receptor (PPAR), has been shown to possess potent anti-inflammatory and antineoplastic actions. Here, we show in mesangial cells that PPARagonists inhibit fibronectin expression by transforming growth factor (TGF)1. TGF1 enhanced fibronectin mRNA expression, and this enhancement was ...

We report infrared spectroscopy of the unusual eclipsing pre–main-sequence object KH 15D, obtained using NIRSPEC on Keck II. During eclipse, observations using low spectral resolution ( ) reveal the presence l/dl ∼ 1000 of prominent molecular hydrogen emission in five lines near 2 mm. The relative line strengths are consistent with thermal excitation at K. Observations out of eclipse, at both l...

OBJECTIVE Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPARgamma) is a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily involved in the growth and differentiation of many cell types. Although the activation of PPARgamma in human vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) inhibits the growth of these cells, the precise mechanism of this effect is unknown. PPARgamma-mediated growth inhibition of VSMCs i...

The 15D is a generic, 15-dimensional, standardised, self-administered measure of health-related quality of life (HRQOL), that can be used as a profile and single index score measure. This paper introduces alternative valuation models based on the multi-attribute utility theory for generating the single index scores, and examines their feasibility, reliability and validity by using several data ...