Is slow coronary flow associated with inflammation?

Cardiologists are familiar with the phenomenon of slow progression of angiographic contrast in the coronary arteries in the absence of stenosis in the epicardial vessels in some patients presenting with chest pain. This phenomenon is called as coronary slow flow phenomenon, and firstly described in 1972, while it remains scantily studied. The pathophysiological mechanisms of coronary slow flow phenomenon remain uncertain. Several hypotheses however, have been suggested for slow coronary flow phenomenon, including a form of early phase of atherosclerosis, small vessel dysfunction, Hagen-Poiseuille's equation model, imbalance between vasoconstrictor and vasodilatory factors, and platelet function disorder. More recently, there has been mounting evidence that inflammation plays an important role in the initiation, development as well as evolution of atherosclerosis, suggesting that atherosclerosis is an inflammation disease. New evidence has also indicated that inflammation may be involved in the development of slow coronary flow phenomenon. Coronary slow flow phenomenon is an important clinical entity because it may be the cause of angina at rest or during exercise, acute myocardial infarction, and hypertension. Despite the good prognosis of this kind of patients, the chronic, frequent nature of the persistent uncomfortable chest can significantly impair the quality of life. Whether this is really a new kind of coronary disease involving in inflammation, however, is still unknown and deserves further investigation.     

Is cytomegalovirus associated with human colorectal tumorigenesis?

Despite the rapid advance in the understanding of molecular pathways underlying human colorectal tumorigenesis, the causes that initiate dysregulation of the pathways remain largely unknown. Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) has been implicated as a potential etiopathogenetic agent. To further investigate whether CMV participates in human colorectal tumorigenesis, we examined 23 colorectal hyperplastic polyps, 65 colorectal adenomas, and 51 colorectal adenocarcinomas by immunohistochemical analysis using 2 antibody mixtures that recognize CMV immediate early, early, and delayed gene products. The results show that while typical nuclear staining (with or without cytoplasmic positivity) was observed in control cases of CMV colitis, no nuclear positivity was detected in any cases studied. Focal and weak cytoplasmic staining was noted in a subset of cases, particularly when a higher antibody concentration was used. This staining was believed to be nonspecific, however, because it also was observed in normal-appearing colonic mucosa. In addition, polymerase chain reaction failed to detect the presence of CMV DNA in 24 selected cases showing nonspecific cytoplasmic immunostaining. These observations demonstrate an absence of CMV proteins and DNA in human colorectal adenocarcinomas and their precursor lesions.     

Is childbirth-induced PTSD associated with low maternal attachment?

Archives of Women's Mental Health - Few studies examined maternal attachment in childbirth-related postpartum posttraumatic stress disorder (PP-PTSD). We studied 685 postpartum women, assessing...     

Is parents’ education level associated with adolescent self-compassion?

Self-compassion has been identified as a trait that correlates with robust mental health; specifically, less anxiety, depression and stress in both adolescents and adults. However, little is known about the parental and family factors that are associated with adolescent self-compassion that may promote or enhance the development of this stress-buffering trait. In this study, 1057 adolescents in grades 7–12 from two different school settings answered questions in an online survey that related to their parents’ education level and their own self-compassion. Results indicated that fathers’ education, but not mothers’, was associated with adolescent self-compassion. Specifically, adolescents whose fathers had a college education only had the highest level of self-compassion; a significant difference was found between self-compassion of adolescents of fathers’ with a college degree and those with a doctorate/professional degree. Adolescents whose fathers had less than a college education (some college, high school graduate) or more than a college education (masters or doctorate/professional degree) reported lower self-compassion. As parent education level may be a proxy for other factors such as socioeconomic status, parenting style, or parent-adolescent relationship closeness, further research is necessary that will measure these factors and parse out that which specifically is associated with self-compassion in adolescents.     

Is sleep-disordered breathing associated with miscarriages? An emerging hypothesis

Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is a common disorder that has numerous medical consequences including cardiovascular morbidity. The clinical presentation in women is frequently vague, leading to its under-recognition in this population. Sleep is known to influence several female hormonal cycles including estrogen, progesterone, prolactin, luteinizing hormone (LH), and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH); consequently, sleep disruption may have adverse effects on female health including pregnancy. Miscarriage, defined as the loss of a pregnancy in the first trimester, occurs in one in four pregnancies; in up to half of cases, the cause may be unknown. Risk factors for miscarriage include increased age, increased weight, and a history of polycystic ovarian syndrome, all of which are also risk factors for SDB. Since SDB is frequently accompanied by sleep fragmentation and intermittent hypoxemia, we speculate that these factors may contribute to miscarriage risk. If this is the case, then treatment of SDB may be a possible intervention for subsequent pregnancies.     

Is personality associated with dementia risk? A meta-analytic investigation

This study provides a quantitative synthesis of the prospective associations between personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness) and the risk of incident Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. We conducted five separate meta-analyses with 8–12 samples (N = 30,036 to 33,054) that were identified through a systematic literature search following the MOOSE guidelines. Higher neuroticism (HR = 1.24, 95% CI [1.17, 1.31]) and lower conscientiousness (HR = 0.77, 95% CI [0.73, 0.81]) were associated with increased dementia risk, even after accounting for covariates such as depressive symptoms. Lower extraversion (HR = 0.92, 95% CI [0.86, 0.97]), openness (HR = 0.91, 95% CI [0.86, 0.96]), and agreeableness (HR = 0.90, 95% CI [0.83, 0.98]) were also associated with increased risk, but these associations were less robust and not significant in fully adjusted models. No evidence of publication bias was found. The strength of associations was unrelated to publication year (i.e., no evidence of winner’s curse). Meta-regressions indicated consistent effects for neuroticism, openness, and conscientiousness across methods to assess dementia, dementia type, follow-up length, sample age, minority, country, and personality measures. The association of extraversion and agreeableness varied by country. Our findings indicate robust associations of neuroticism and conscientiousness with dementia risk.     

Is fasting insulin associated with blood pressure in obese children?

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: We tested whether fasting insulin levels are associated with blood pressure in a large sample of obese children. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Three hundred and fifty obese children (F:M ratio = 1.03) of 10.1 +/- 2.7 y of age (mean +/- SD) were consecutively enrolled at an Outpatient Paediatric Clinic. Obesity was diagnosed on the basis of a relative weight for age > 120% and hypertension on the basis of a systolic (SBP) or diastolic (DBP) blood pressure > 95th percentile for age after adjustment for height (Ht). MAIN OUTCOME AND RESULTS: Insulin was significantly higher in hypertensive (n = 202, 58%) than normotensive (n = 148, 42%) children (16 vs 14 microU mL(-1), geometric mean, p < 0.01, ANOVA) but the difference was not clinically relevant. Moreover, (log-transformed) insulin explained only 7 and 4% of SBP and DBP variance, respectively (p < 0.0001 for both) and this contribution disappeared after the confounding effects of age, weight or other anthropometric dimensions were taken into account (p = ns, ANCOVA). CONCLUSIONS: This study does not support the hypothesis of a clinically relevant association between fasting insulin and blood pressure in obese children.     

Is arterial stiffness in HIV-infected individuals associated with HIV-related factors?

We investigated the association between pulse wave velocity (PWV) and HIV infection, antiretroviral treatment-related characteristics, viral load, immune status, and metabolic changes in a cross-sectional study nested in a cohort of HIV/AIDS patients who have been followed for metabolic and cardiovascular changes since 2007. The study included patients recruited from the cohort (N = 261) and a comparison group (N = 82) of uninfected individuals, all enrolled from April to November 2009. Aortic stiffness was estimated using the carotid-femoral PWV (Complior-Artech, Paris, France). The groups were similar with respect to age, metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus, Framingham score, and use of antihypertensive and hypolipidemic medications. Hypertension was more frequent among the controls. Individuals with HIV had higher triglyceride, glucose and HDL cholesterol levels. Among individuals with HIV/AIDS, those with a nadir CD4⁺ T-cell count <200 cells/mm³ had a higher PWV (P = 0.01). There was no statistically significant difference when subjects were stratified by gender. Heart rate, age, male gender, and blood pressure were independently correlated with PWV. Nadir CD4⁺ T-cell count did not remain in the final model. There was no significance difference in PWV between HIV-infected individuals and uninfected controls. PWV was correlated with age, gender, and blood pressure across the entire population and among those infected with HIV. We recommend cohort studies to further explore the association between inflammation related to HIV infection and/or immune reconstitution and antiretroviral use and PWV.     

Is inefficient multisensory processing associated with falls in older people?

Although falling is a significant problem for older persons, little is understood about its underlying causes. Spatial cognition and balance maintenance rely on the efficient integration of information across the main senses. We investigated general multisensory efficiency in older persons with a history of falls compared to age- and sensory acuity-matched controls and younger adults using a sound-induced flash illusion. Older fallers were as susceptible to the illusion as age-matched, non-fallers or younger adults at a short delay of 70 ms between the auditory and visual stimuli. Both older adult groups were more susceptible to the illusion at longer SOAs than younger adults. However, with increasing delays between the visual and auditory stimuli, older fallers did not show a decline in the frequency at which the illusion was experienced even with delays of up to 270 ms. We argue that this relatively higher susceptibility to the illusion reflects inefficient audio–visual processing in the central nervous system and has important implications for the diagnosis and rehabilitation of falling in older persons.     

Is passive smoking associated with sleep disturbance among pregnant women?

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Pregnant women suffer from sleep disturbance, which may be aggravated by passive smoking. In this study we investigated the effects of passive smoking on sleep disturbance during pregnancy. DESIGN: Two cross-sectional questionnaire surveys conducted in 2002 and 2006. SETTING: Clinical institutions specializing in obstetrics and gynecology that participated in the nationwide surveys: 260 in the 2002 survey and 344 in the 2006 survey. PARTICIPANTS: 16,396 and 19,386 pregnant women in Japan surveyed in 2002 and 2006, respectively. INTERVENTION: N/A. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: Pregnant women exposed to passive smoking were likely to have sleep disturbances, such as subjective insufficient sleep, difficulty in initiating sleep, short sleep duration, and snoring loudly/breathing uncomfortably. Smoking pregnant women had the same sleep disturbances and also experienced excessive daytime sleepiness and early morning awakening. The prevalence of 5 types of sleep disturbance (insufficient sleep, difficulty in initiating sleep, short sleep duration, excessive daytime sleepiness, and snoring loudly/breathing uncomfortably) among nonsmokers with environmental tobacco smoke showed a mean value intermediate between that of active smokers and that of nonsmokers without environmental tobacco smoke. CONCLUSION: Passive smoking is independently associated with increased sleep disturbance during pregnancy.     

Is schizophrenia developmental adaptation to environmental menaces?

Schizophrenia is a devastating mental disorder, with its symptoms typically emerging during late adolescence to young adulthood. In contrast, accumulating evidence suggests that schizophrenia is a developmental disorder in which brain abnormalities may occur even before birth. This has brought the major challenge to explain such discrepancy of brain deficits occurring during prenatal period and emergence of symptoms during adulthood. A number of ideas have been proposed to explain delayed emergence of symptoms at adulthood in relation to maturational processes of various brain systems during adolescence. However, these still lack clear relationship to prenatal deficits. Thus, a key to better understand the pathology of schizophrenia is to unveil a theory or model that can explain the relationship between prenatal deficits and post-pubertal onset of symptoms. Here we propose a novel hypothesis, along with discussion of several lines of evidences supporting it, that schizophrenia may not be a disorder in a strict sense, but rather be understood as the biological state occurring as consequence of adaptation to severe environmental conditions during the prenatal periods, which explains the relationship between prenatal developmental deficits and the postnatal maturational process for onset of symptoms.     

Is there an immunologic basis for schizophrenia?

The cause of schizophrenia remains an enigma despite the development of effective antipsychotic drugs that act by modulating the dopaminergic and serotonergic systems in the limbic region of the brain. Although such drugs are undoubtedly clinically effective, many patients do not fully benefit from such treatments, and the side effects, such as weight gain and the exacerbation of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, are often problematic. In recent years, the possible cause of schizophrenia has switched from an emphasis on neurotransmitter dysfunction to possible genetic and neurodevelopmental abnormalities. The close link between the loci for insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, human lymphocyte antigen system and schizophrenia may indicate an immune component for this disorder. This hypothesis gains further credibility from epidemiologic studies showing a link between viral infections in utero and the subsequent development of schizophrenia; the negative correlation between rheumatoid arthritis and schizophrenia gives further support to the hypothesis. Thus, the immune hypothesis of schizophrenia has developed from an understanding of the genetic, environmental and infectious sequelae that underlie the immune changes involving the cellular and humoral components of the adaptive immune system. The changes in the types of T-lymphocytes that are involved in the adaptive immune response are of particular importance. The T-helper 1 cells, that secrete interleukin-2 and interferon-γ for example, are reduced in activity while the T-helper 2 cells, together with the macrophages, show an increased secretion of interleukins-6 and -10. As these immune changes are normalized following effective antipsychotic drug treatment, new types of antipsychotics could be developed that act directly on the imbalance in the components of the adaptive immune system. The finding that some anti-inflammatory drugs can exhibit modest antipsychotic activity is further evidence of the validity of the autoimmune nature of schizophrenia and an indication that drug development based on this concept may be a fruitful area for future research.     

Is vitamin K consumption associated with cardio-metabolic disorders? A systematic review

Associations have been found between various micronutrients and cardio-metabolic outcomes. Vitamin K deficiency has been associated with increased calcification of the main arteries and with insulin resistance. The present study aimed to examine the association between vitamin K intake and cardio-metabolic outcomes including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and the metabolic syndrome.     

Is cutaneous malignant melanoma associated with the use of antibacterial soaps?

Since 1960, the incidence of melanoma has increased dramatically in Caucasians worldwide, and during the past decade has risen at a rate of 6% a year in the USA. A hypothesis regarding this increased incidence suggests that the prevalent use of antibacterial soaps that contain photosensitizing compounds may be a risk factor for the development of cutaneous malignant melanoma. These antibacterial soaps were introduced in the 1960s and compounds with photosensitizing properties are still present in various soaps throughout the industrialized world. The use of these antibacterial soaps, in combination with sun exposure, leads to free radical production in the skin. These free radicals are hypothesized to cause damage to melanocytes, leading to the development of melanoma. Various epidemiological findings regarding melanoma are consistent with this hypothesis. A significant reduction in the number of new cases of melanoma could be achieved if this hypothesis is correct.