Subjects infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have increased risk for atherosclerosis. Carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) assessed using ultrasound and coronary artery calcium (CAC) detected using computed tomography predict cardiovascular risk in the general population; however, their usefulness and comparability in patients with HIV are less well defined. The purpose of t...

Efficient Call Admission Control (CAC) techniques are of paramount importance to achieve a flexible radio resource utilization with W-CDMA systems like UMTS. In order to accept or reject a call, the CAC scheme should be able to estimate if the system can provide a Signal-to-Interference Ratio (SIR) high enough to the new call and to all the others. With symmetric traffic the more critical direc...

BACKGROUND Electron beam computed tomography is an accurate, noninvasive method to detect and quantify coronary artery calcification (CAC), a marker of subclinical and clinical coronary artery atherosclerosis. CAC quantity predicts future coronary artery disease end points in asymptomatic adults, but measured risk factors explain less than half the variability in CAC quantity. Although several ...

OBJECTIVES This study prospectively evaluated the relationship between cardiovascular risk factors, selected biomarkers (high-sensitivity C-reactive protein [hs-CRP], interleukin [IL]-6, and osteoprotegerin [OPG]), and the progression of coronary artery calcification (CAC) in type 2 diabetic subjects. BACKGROUND Coronary artery calcification is pathognomonic of coronary atherosclerosis. Osteo...

OBJECTIVE Long-term exposure to traffic and particulate matter air pollution is associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, potentially via atherosclerosis promotion. Prior research on associations of traffic and particulate matter with coronary artery calcium Agatston score (CAC), an atherosclerosis correlate, has yielded inconsistent findings. Given this background, we assessed w...

BACKGROUND Hyperphosphatemia is one of the common complications in patients undergoing hemodialysis. Although calcium carbonate (CaC) is often used to control serum inorganic phosphorus level in dialysis patients, co-administration of gastric acid reducers (ARs) may interfere with the phosphate binding effect of CaC. We performed a retrospective medical chart review to study whether ARs attenua...

Hou J, Tamura T, Kidokoro Y. Delayed symaptic transmission in Drosophila cacophony embryos. J Neurophysiol 100: 2833–2842, 2008. First published September 24, 2008; doi:10.1152/jn.90342.2008. Ca influx through the Drosophila N-type Ca channel, encoded by cacophony (cac), triggers fast synaptic transmission. We now ask whether the cac Ca channel is the Ca channel solely dedicated for fast synapt...

BACKGROUND Few studies have investigated the association between coronary artery calcium (CAC) progression and arterial stiffness measured by brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV). We examined the influence of the severity of baseline baPWV on CAC progression in a large prospective cohort. METHODS A total of 1600 subjects who voluntarily participated in a comprehensive health-screening p...

AIMS Circulating angiogenic cells (CAC) participate in cardiac repair. CAC recruitment to the ischaemic heart is mainly induced by the chemokine (C-X-C motif) receptor 4 (CXCR4)/stromal-cell derived factor-1α axis. However, CAC mobilization is only partly prevented by CXCR4 blockade, indicating that other mechanisms are involved. Since the expression of monocyte chemotactic protein 3 (MCP3) is ...

BACKGROUND Process of accelerated atherosclerosis specific for uremia increases cardiovascular risk in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and may be influenced by the different structure of arteries. The study assesses the influence of traditional and novel risk factors on calcification of coronary arteries (CAC) and abdominal aorta (AAC) in hemodialysis patients (HD). METHODS CAC and...