BACKGROUND Serum vitamin D concentration is reported to show a decrease in older age. Patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) in Japan are older on average than those in Western countries. Moreover, the outcome of pegylated-interferon (PEG-IFN)/ ribavirin therapy combined with vitamin D in elderly patients is unclear. OBJECTIVES This pilot study explored the efficacy and safety of alfacalcido...

Recent evidence suggested that the free cortisol response to awakening is influenced by awakening time in healthy younger adults (Edwards et al., 2001). In order to investigate this association further, 179 community-dwelling subjects of a large age range (4-75 yrs) participated in the present study. The sample consisted of 99 women, 67 men and 13 children. Subjects were instructed to obtain sa...

background :this paper explores the gender-related bilateral differences of extensor and flexor torques of the knee joint at low and high angular velocities in iranian healthy males and females.   methods : 70 healthy subjects (29 males (26.61±4.34 yrs and 41 females with average age of 23.07±3.70 yrs)) were participated in this study. isokinetic peak torque values for knee extensors and flexor...

Of 825 pediatric malignancies diagnosed at our institution between 2005 and 2012, 13 (1.6%) had primary liver tumors. The median age was 4 years (2 mo 15 yrs), 9 males. In 12 cases (92.3%), a malignant primary was present of which hepatoblastoma was the commonest, seen in 8(67%) cases. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) was diagnosed in 3(25%) and undifferentiated embryonal sarcoma(UES) in 1(8%). M...

INTRODUCTION Pubertal growth pattern differs according to age at pubertal growth spurt onset which occurs over a five years period (girls: 8-13 years, boys: 10-15 years). The need for more than one pubertal reference pattern has been proposed. We aimed to obtain five 1-year-age-interval pubertal patterns. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Longitudinal (6 years of age-adult height) growth study of 1,453 he...

The incidence of adenocarcinoma is increasing, particularly among females. We sought to assess the role of tobacco consumption in clinical presentation according to sex. In this retrospective study, 848 patients diagnosed between 1997 and 2006 at Grenoble University Hospital (Grenoble, France) were stratified into four groups according to smoking habits. Differences between sexes and two contra...

The P1/P50 midlatency auditory evoked potential is a sleep state-dependent waveform present during waking and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and absent during slow-wave sleep. The P50 potential was studied in normal male and female subjects of various ages including post-pubertal adolescents (12-19 yrs), young adults (24-39 yrs), middle-aged adults (40-55 yrs) and older adults (55-78 yrs). Ther...

Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is primarily regarded as a male disorder, presenting with snoring, daytime sleepiness and cardiovascular disease. We aimed to determine the frequency of sleep apnoea among females in the general population. We investigated 400 females from a population-based random sample of 10,000 females aged 20-70 yrs. They answered a questionnaire and performed overnight polys...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the long-term response to biological therapies in AS in a real life clinical setting and to quantify non-response and response to 'switching' therapies in these cases. METHODS All patients prescribed TNF-blocking therapies for AS between 1999 and 2006 were studied. Response was evaluated using Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI), Bath Ankylosin...