BACKGROUND Renal sinus fat (RSF) has been recognized as a risk factor for arterial hypertension. This study was addressed to examine whether also para- and perirenal fat accumulation is associated to higher 24-h mean systolic (SBP) and/or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) levels in overweight and obese subjects. METHODS A cohort of 42 overweight and obese patients, 29 women and 13 men, aged 25-5...

Previous studies suggest that a low-glycaemic index (LGI) diet may improve insulin sensitivity (IS). As IS has been shown to decrease during refeeding, we hypothesised that an LGI- v. high-GI (HGI) diet might have favourable effects during this phase. In a controlled nutritional intervention study, sixteen healthy men (aged 26·8 (SD 4·1) years, BMI 23·0 (SD 1·7) kg/m2) followed 1 week of overfe...

BACKGROUND This study was designed to determine relationship between the glucose metabolism disorder (the insulin resistance and the impaired glucose tolerance) and α-thalassemia. METHODS In this historical cohort study, 80Alpha-thalassemia carriers and 80 healthy people were enrolled. The participants had no diabetes familial history and the waist circumference and blood pressure were in nor...

BACKGROUND This study introduces a novel self-report instrument to measure children's time-use in physical and sedentary activities and examines the relationships between children's time-use and physical fitness and risks of obesity and diabetes. METHODS The new instrument utilizes a series of timelines, each representing an activity type. 188 children (53% girls) aged 10 to 14 year-old parti...

Co-heritability of hypertension and insulin resistance (IR) within families not only implies genetic susceptibility may be responsible for these complex traits but also suggests a rational that biological candidate genes for hypertension may serve as markers for features of the metabolic syndrome (MetS). Thus we determined whether the T323C polymorphism (rs5333) of endothelin type A (ETA) recep...

Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal underactivity has been reported in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). This phenomenon has implications with regard to the pathogenesis and treatment of the disease. The present study was designed to evaluate the secretion of the adrenal androgen dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) and its relation to clinical variables in RA, spondyloarthropathy (Spa), and undifferenti...

PURPOSE To evaluate the effects of two dietary patterns in which carbohydrates and proteins were eaten mostly at lunch or dinner on body weight and composition, energy metabolism, and biochemical markers in overweight/obese men. METHODS Fifty-eight men (30.0 ± 7.4 years; 30.8 ± 2.4 kg/m(2)) followed a covert hypocaloric balanced diet (-10 % of daily energy requirements) during 8 weeks. Subjec...

PURPOSE Simple instruments are needed to assess habitual physical activity (PA) in obese subjects. In a multicenter European obesity project, we tested whether PA assessments by two questionnaires were correlated and similarly associated to selected obesity-related variables. METHODS A total of 757 obese subjects (75% female; age 37.1 [7.9] yr, BMI 35.5 [4.9] kg.m(-2), mean [SD]) completed th...

INTRODUCTION PGF2α may be involved in the regulation of adipose tissue function. OBJECTIVES 1) To examine PGF2α release by primary preadipocytes, mature adipocytes and whole tissue explants from the subcutaneous and omental fat compartments; 2) To assess which PGF synthase is the most relevant in human adipose tissue. METHODS Fat samples were obtained by surgery in women. PGF2α release by p...

Rationale: Arginine vasopressin (AVP) is secreted under conditions of water deprivation. Since AVP has a low half-life in the plasma, the C-terminal fragment of AVP-precursor (copeptin) was used to estimate the AVP levels. High copeptin levels increase the risk for the development of diabetes mellitus. Aim: This study was aimed to measure copeptin levels in the metabolic syndrome (MetS) in Roma...