OBJECTIVES To determine the variation in charges for 10 common blood tests across California hospitals in 2011, and to analyse the hospital and market-level factors that may explain any observed variation. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of the degree of charge variation between hospitals for 10 common blood tests using charge data reported by all non-...

We assessed the impact of the NCEP-III recommendations in a population-based, nation-wide Mexican survey. Information was obtained from 15,607 subjects aged 20 to 69 years. In this report, only samples obtained after a 9 to 12 hours fast are included (2,201 cases). A cardiovascular risk equivalent was found in 10.5% and > or = 2 risk factors were present in 41.7% of the population. In 10% of ca...

The immunopotentiator tucaresol was modified for incorporation into liposomes, where it was found to be a superior adjuvant to MPLA for vaccination against methamphetamine.

In late 2004, the British government decided to allow a lipid-lowering agent to be sold as an over-the-counter medication. In contrast, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently decided not to do so. The United States and other countries will soon face similar decisions for other statins. Although statins have infrequent side effects and have been shown to be effective in moderate-risk pri...

Very few lipid transfer proteins (LTPs) have been caught in the act of transferring lipids in vivo from a donor membrane to an acceptor membrane. Now, two studies (Halter, D., S. Neumann, S.M. van Dijk, J. Wolthoorn, A.M. de Maziere, O.V. Vieira, P. Mattjus, J. Klumperman, G. van Meer, and H. Sprong. 2007. J. Cell Biol. 179:101-115; D'Angelo, G., E. Polishchuk, G.D. Tullio, M. Santoro, A.D. Cam...

In order to obtain biomarker values that reflect body burden of persistent organohalogen pollutants (POP), concentrations of lipophilic POP in serum or plasma are generally expressed on a lipid weight basis, and not on a fresh weight basis. There are two different approaches to determine the lipid content in serum and plasma. The gravimetric determination is more expensive, and longer experienc...

The major facilitator superfamily (MFS) is the largest collection of structurally related membrane proteins that transport a wide array of substrates. The proton-coupled sugar transporter XylE is the first member of the MFS that has been structurally characterized in multiple transporting conformations, including both the outward and inward-facing states. Here we report the crystal structure of...

Biophysical and spectroscopic analysis of synthetic transmembrane domain I (1) of mycobacteriophage D29 holin shows a lipid concentration dependent conformational switch from an α-helix to a β-sheet structure. The reversibility of this switch, upon change in the lipid-to-peptide ratio, requires a central Pro-Gly segment, and is abolished upon mutation to Ala-Ala or (D)Pro-Gly.