Vegetarians have a lower fasting insulin level and higher insulin sensitivity than matched omnivores: A cross-sectional study

Background and aims

Potential associations of vegetarian diet patterns with fasting insulin (FI) and insulin sensitivity remain unclear. We aimed to investigate whether vegetarian diets were associated with FI and insulin sensitivity in a cross-sectional study in Chinese vegetarians and matched omnivores and then to test whether it is independent of body mass index (BMI).

Body mass index growth trajectories from birth through 24 months in Iranian infants of mothers with gestational diabetes mellitus

AimsChild growth is one of the important health indicators in pediatric care. Few studies focused on the impact of prenatal exposure to gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) on growth trajectories particular in early years of childhood. The aim of this study was identifying growth pattern of GDM exposed offspring's, comparison with new WHO child growth standards.Methods and materialsIn a population-based Longitudinal study 438 infants exposed to gestational diabetes in utero, aged 0–24 months, born between 2014 and 2016 with at least 9 visits in first 2 years of life were enrolled. Twenty health centers of Ahvaz city (Capital of Khuzestan province, located in south western of Iran) and two referral centers for neonatal hypothyroidism involved the study.ResultsOf 438 GDM exposed infants, 54.6% were boys. Incidence of low birth weight and macrosomia were 4.6% and 8.7% respectively.Results4.6% had birth weight less than 2500gr and 8.7% was rate of macrosomia. Boys had higher weight and BMI than girls. Peak of BMI was 17.8 (±2.07) at 6 months after Gender was significant factor in predicted of BMI growth trajectories in GDM exposed children (p = 0.001). BMI in GDM exposed infants, in first 2 years of life was higher than WHO growth standards 2006 (P < 0.01).ConclusionMedians of BMI in GDM exposed infants in all measures was higher than WHO reference data 2006 (P < 0.01). Obesity prevention programs must be priority in GDM exposed infants.     

Non-linear Wave Propagation and Safety Standards for Diagnostic Ultrasound Devices

Safety standards for clinical diagnostic ultrasonic devices were developed for use in relatively low-frequency systems (1–10 MHz), under the assumption that non-linear effects would be negligible. This article reviews ways in which neglecting non-linear wave propagation affects the measurements and calculations required to comply with safety standards and U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidance that recognizes these standards. An attempt is made to evaluate whether ignoring non-linear effects could result in significant error in the exposure quantities defined in these standards at either low or high frequencies, based on published literature. This article maintains that although non-linear effects have been considered in some parts of safety standards related to hydrophone requirements, the coverage is inadequate, especially for modern equipment with high working frequencies. A new approach is required to assess the magnitude of thermal heating for recently developed high-frequency systems to incorporate non-linear effects. In contrast, the current approach for evaluating the risk of cavitation can be used after appropriate modifications.     

Association of Sleep Duration and Quality With Subclinical Atherosclerosis

Background

Sleep duration and quality have been associated with increased cardiovascular risk. However, large studies linking objectively measured sleep and subclinical atherosclerosis assessed in multiple vascular sites are lacking.

藏族药“杂赤”的品种 基原与标准整理

藏族药（以下简称藏药）“杂赤”又称“杂赤确”“杂赤巴帽卡”等，产于四川、西藏等地，是一种治疗肝胆疾病的常用藏药。通过梳理查阅有关文献与标准发现，“杂赤”可以按正品、副品（替代品）和类同品分类，也可以按黑、白品种分类。其基原包含菊科12属约30种植物，涉及风毛菊属、苦荬菜属、小苦荬属及岩参属植物，各属植物功能主治基本相同。“杂赤”的品种整理、质量比较、药用历史和现状总结能够为“杂赤”的合理使用提供参考。     

Clustering clinical models from local electronic health records based on semantic similarity

BackgroundClinical models in electronic health records are typically expressed as templates which support the multiple clinical workflows in which the system is used. The templates are often designed using local rather than standard information models and terminology, which hinders semantic interoperability. Semantic challenges can be solved by harmonizing and standardizing clinical models. However, methods supporting harmonization based on existing clinical models are lacking. One approach is to explore semantic similarity estimation as a basis of an analytical framework. Therefore, the aim of this study is to develop and apply methods for intrinsic similarity-estimation based analysis that can compare and give an overview of multiple clinical models.MethodFor a similarity estimate to be intrinsic it should be based on an established ontology, for which SNOMED CT was chosen. In this study, Lin similarity estimates and Sokal and Sneath similarity estimates were used together with two aggregation techniques (average and best-match-average respectively) resulting in a total of four methods. The similarity estimations are used to hierarchically cluster templates. The test material consists of templates from Danish and Swedish EHR systems. The test material was used to evaluate how the four different methods perform.Result and discussionThe best-match-average aggregation technique performed better in terms of clustering similar templates than the average aggregation technique. No difference could be seen in terms of the choice of similarity estimate in this study, but the finding may be different for other datasets. The dendrograms resulting from the hierarchical clustering gave an overview of the templates and a basis of further analysis.ConclusionHierarchical clustering of templates based on SNOMED CT and semantic similarity estimation with best-match-average aggregation technique can be used for comparison and summarization of multiple templates. Consequently, it can provide a valuable tool for harmonization and standardization of clinical models.     

Efficacy of CT-P6 (trastuzumab biosimilar) versus reference trastuzumab in combination with pertuzumab in HER2-positive early-stage breast cancer: Preclinical and real-life clinical data

After the expiration of trastuzumab data exclusivity, biosimilar drugs were approved by regulatory agencies; among them, CT-P6 which was approved for the treatment of HER2-positive early- and advanced-breast cancer (BC) in 2018. Yet, reference trastuzumab (RTZ) is often combined with pertuzumab in early BC (EBC) patients treated with chemotherapy as it significantly improves the pathological complete response rate. Unfortunately, scarce preclinical and clinical data exists about the combination of CT-P6, pertuzumab and chemotherapy. Therefore, our aim was to study in vitro and in a retrospective cohort of EBC patients, whether CT-P6 was equivalent to RTZ when combined with pertuzumab with or without taxanes. In BT-474 and SKBR3 HER2+ cells we found that CT-P6 alone or in combination with pertuzumab had the same negative effect on cell proliferation, colony formation and HER2 downregulation as well as downstream activation, as RTZ. Adding paclitaxel to these treatments increased their effectivity to a similar extent. In HER2 1+ neuregulin-secreting MB-MDA-175 cells, combinations of CT-P6 or RTZ with pertuzumab were also effective, and mainly dependent on HER3:HER2 heterodimerization. In a retrospective cohort of 44 EBC HER2+ patients treated with neoadjuvant RTZ or CT-P6 in combination with pertuzumab and chemotherapy, we found no differences in efficacy or in adverse events. Moreover, the costs of CT-P6-based treatments were reduced by 1474.07 €/patient. All together we provide pre-clinical and clinical evidence of the equivalence of CT-P6 in combination with pertuzumab and chemotherapy and suggest studying these combinations also in HER2 low/negative BC patients.     

Liquid chromatography as candidate reference method for the determination of vitamins A and E in human serum

BackgroundOwing to the increasing interest in public health research of antioxidant micronutrients and the inaccuracy of routine serum concentrations of the fat‐soluble vitamins A (retinol) and E (DL‐α‐tocopherol) measurements, we developed a reliable, highly sensitive, robust and rapid method for the quantification of two clinically important lipophilic antioxidants in serum using a reverse‐phase HPLC/DAD method.MethodSample preparation and analytical conditions that would affect extraction efficiency and quantitative results of vitamins A and E were investigated and optimized. Vitamins A and E were extracted from serum via liquid‐liquid extraction (LLE). After adequate sample preparation, the samples were injected directly into the HPLC system with diode‐array detector (DAD). Chromatographic separation was completed in 7 minutes for vitamins A and E. With vitamin A acetate and vitamin E acetate as internal standards, the method was applied to the measurement of vitamins A and E in human serum.ResultsWe evaluated method linearity, accuracy (recovery rate and trueness), precision, carryover, limit of quantitation and limit of detection, and measurement uncertainty. The method was evaluated for trueness using NIST Standard Reference Material SRM 968f. The serum concentration of the studied compounds had a good linear relationship in the range of 0.05 ~ 3.0 μg/mL concentration (r ＝ 0.9998), with 0.0077 μg/mL detection limit and 0.025 μg/mL quantitative limit for vitamin A, respectively, and 1.0 ~ 60.0 μg/mL concentration (r ＝ 0.9999), with 0.40 μg/mL detection limit and 0.50 μg/mL quantitative limit for vitamin E, respectively. The intra‐ and inter‐assay coefficients of variation were calculated by using three concentrations (1, 2, and 3) of the studied compounds in human serum samples. Intra‐assay and inter‐assay precision were 1.23%‐4.97% and 0.97%‐3.79% for vitamin A, respectively, and 0.64%‐4.07% and 0.81%‐5.96% for vitamin E, respectively. The average recovery rates were 100.98% for vitamin A, and 99.21% for vitamin E, respectively. The carryover rate of vitamins A and E was below 1%. As for the evaluation of accuracy, the biases were <± 5% by comparing with NIST standard reference material SRM 968f.ConclusionThe method is a simple sample treatment procedure for the determination of fat‐soluble vitamins A and E in human serum with high sensitivity and specificity. The proposed method could be recommended as a candidate reference method for the determination of serum concentrations of the fat‐soluble vitamins A and E in human serum.