ACE gene polymorphism explains 30-40% of variability in serum ACE activity in both women and men in the population at large: the Copenhagen City Heart Study.
Adipose tissue fatty acids, it has been proposed, reflect dietary intake. Using data from a validation study preceding a prospective study on diet, cancer, and health in Denmark, we were able to compare fatty acid profiles in adipose tissue biopsies from 86 individuals (23 men and 63 women) aged 40-64 y and dietary intake of fatty acids (as percentage of total fat) assessed by two 7-d weighed-diet records or by a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. Correlation coefficients (Pearson r) between fatty acid concentrations in adipose tissue biopsies (as percentage of total peak area) and dietary intake of fatty acid (percentage of total fat), determined from the diet records for men and women, respectively, were as follows: polyunsaturated fatty acids r = 0.74 and r = 0.46; n - 3 fatty acids of marine origin: eicosapentaenoic acid r = 0.15 and r = 0.61, and docosahexaenoic acid r = 0.47 and r = 0.57. Correlation coefficients obtained by using the food frequency questionnaire were slightly lower for most fatty acids.
Elevated base deficit (BD) and lactate levels at admission in patients with injury have been shown to be associated with increased mortality. This relationship is undefined in the Canadian experience. The goal of this study was to define the association between arterial blood gas (ABG) values at admission and mortality for Canadians with severe blunt injury.
A retrospective review of 3,000 consecutive adult major trauma admissions (Injury Severity Score, = 12) to a Canadian academic tertiary care referral center was performed. ABG values at the time of arrival were analyzed with respect to associated mortality and length of stay.
A total of 2,269 patients (76%) had complete data available for analysis. After exclusion of patients who sustained a penetrating injury or were admitted for minor falls (ground levels or low height), 445 had an ABG drawn within 2 hours of arrival. Patients who died displayed a higher median lactate (3.6 vs. 2.2, p
A number of systems that generate oxygen free radicals and reactive aldehydic species are activated by excessive ethanol consumption. Recent studies from human alcoholics and from experimental animals have indicated that acetaldehyde and aldehydic products of lipid peroxidation, which are generated in such processes, can bind to proteins forming stable adducts. Adduct formation may lead to several adverse consequences, such as interference with protein function, stimulation of fibrogenesis, and induction of immune responses. The presence of protein adducts in the centrilobular region of the liver in alcohol abusers with an early phase of histological liver damage indicates that adduct formation is one of the key events in the pathogenesis of alcoholic liver disease. Dietary supplementation with fat and/or iron strikingly increases the amount of aldehyde-derived epitopes in the liver together with promotion of fibrogenesis.
Biochemical investigations have shown that an indigenous milk enzyme - alkaline phosphatase (ALP) - which is detectable in the lactocytes, plays a very important diagnostic role in clinical medicine, since its activity varies in different tissues and serves as a specific indicator of disease states. The purpose of this study was to evaluate ALP activity in human colostrum as a possible early predictive biomarker for lactational mastitis in nursing mothers.
During a period from May to July 2010, a total of 60 healthy nursing mothers were recruited for this study.
The mean level of colostrum ALP activity from the affected breasts was significantly higher when compared with ALP activity from the contralateral asymptomatic as well as 'healthy' breasts (p
A novel methodological design comprising multilevel assessments of exposures of examinees to controlled ambient air pollution according to the data of route stations was developed to examine the population of large towns. The design was tested in 4 surveys of Moscow residents (apparently healthy and outpatients with a number of chronic diseases). The findings indicate the fundamental possibility of altering the traditional differential design of biomedical surveys of the population, by introducing more evidence-based regression analyses and dividing the contributions of individual chemicals to the observed changes in health indices.
Genetic factors play an important role in the pathogenesis of osteoporosis, and recent studies have shown that a polymorphic Sp1 binding site in collagen type I alpha1 (COLIA1) gene is associated with bone mass and vertebral fractures in women from the U.K. Information on the predictive value of the COLIA1 Sp1 polymorphism in other populations is limited, however, and no studies have yet been performed in osteoporotic males. In view of this, we analyzed COLIA1 genotypes in relation to bone density and biochemical markers of bone turnover and the presence of osteoporotic fractures in a case-control study of Danish men and women. COLIA1 genotype was determined by polymerase chain reaction analysis of genomic DNA extracted from peripheral blood samples and related to bone mass, biochemical markers of bone turnover, and the presence of fracture in a study of 375 osteoporotic vertebral fracture patients and normal controls. There was no significant effect of COLIA1 genotype on bone mass or biochemical markers when data from the control group (n = 195) and fracture group (n = 180) were analyzed separately. However, the genotype distribution was significantly different in the fracture cases compared with age-matched controls (chi2 = 16.48, n = 249,p = 0.0003) due mainly to over-representation of the ss genotype in the fracture patients (14.3% vs. 1.4%), equivalent to an odds ratio for vertebral fracture of 11.83 (95% confidence interval 2.64-52.97) in those with the ss genotype. Similar differences in genotype distribution between osteoporotic patients and controls were observed in both men (chi2 = 11.52, n = 95, p = 0.0032, OR = 2.04) and women (chi2 = 6.90, n = 154, p = 0.032, OR = 1.37). In keeping with the above, logistic regression analysis showed that the ss genotype was an independent predictor of osteoporotic fracture (p = 0.028). This study confirms that the COLIA1 Sp1 polymorphism is significantly associated with osteoporotic vertebral fractures. The association is seen in both men and women, and the effect on fracture risk appears to be partly independent of bone mineral density. Our results raise the possibility that genotyping at the Sp1 site could be of clinical value in identifying individuals at risk of osteoporotic fractures in both genders.
276 Patients with bronchial asthma of different degree of severity have been observed. An increase in processes of lipid peroxidation, depression of antioxidant protection, increase in oxide nitrogen metabolites in blood serum and condensate of exhaled air were detected. These pathological changes may be considered as manifestation of system oxidative stress more expressed in bronchi.
