Chronic low level physical activity as a determinant of high density lipoprotein cholesterol and subfractions

Physical activity has been associated with reduced risk of coronary heart disease. A mechanism for the reduced risk may be through increased high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and subfractions, in particular HDL2-C. Research associated with increased physical activity investigating HLD-C have assessed the effects of intense aerobic activity. The current research evaluated the relationship between low intensity, long duration activity to HDL-C and subfractions in 35 active postal carriers. Measurements of physical activity via the Large Scale Integrated monitor and reported miles walked, and lipoproteins were assessed at 3-month intervals over a 1-year period. Reported miles walked/day (5.3) was significantly correlated with HLD2-C (r = 0.50, P = 0.003) and approached significance for HDL-C (r = 0.29, P = 0.06). The Large Scale Integrated measures were correlated with HDL-C (r = 0.44, P = 0.008) and HDL2-C (r = 0.44, P = 0.007). Controlling for either age, alcohol consumption, body mass index, or leisure time activity did not reduce the relationship between reported miles walked or Large Scale Integrated readings and HDL2-C, suggesting that the increased HDL-C was the result of long duration, low intensity physical activity.     

Digital mammography. ROC studies of the effects of pixel size and unsharp-mask filtering on the detection of subtle microcalcifications

We investigated the spatial resolution requirement and the effect of unsharp-mask filtering on the detectability of subtle microcalcifications in digital mammography. Digital images were obtained by digitizing conventional screen-film mammograms with a 0.1 X 0.1 mm2 pixel size, processed with unsharp masking, and then reconstituted on film with a Fuji image processing/simulation system (Fuji Photo Film Co., Tokyo, Japan). Twenty normal cases and 12 cases with subtle microcalcifications were included. Observer performance experiments were conducted to assess the detectability of subtle microcalcifications in the conventional, the unprocessed digital, and the unsharp-masked mammograms. The observer response data were evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and LROC (ROC with localization) analyses. Our results indicate that digital mammograms obtained with 0.1 X 0.1 mm2 pixels provide lower detectability than the conventional screen-film mammograms. The detectability of microcalcifications in the digital mammograms is improved by unsharp-mask filtering; the processed mammograms still provide lower accuracy than the conventional mammograms, however, chiefly because of increased false-positive detection rates for the processed images at each subjective confidence level. Viewing unprocessed digital and unsharp-masked images in pairs resulted in approximately the same detectability as that obtained with the unsharp-masked images alone. However, this result may be influenced by the fact that the same limited viewing time was necessarily divided between the two images.     

Influence of pain and urinary symptoms on quality of life in young men with chronic prostatitis-like symptoms

BACKGROUND: Our aims in the present study were to estimate the influences of pain and urinary symptoms on quality of life, and to determine which of these two variables has the most predictive power with respect to quality of life in young men with chronic prostatitis-like symptoms. METHODS: Chronic prostatitis-like symptoms were measured by the National Institutes of Health-Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index. Of the 28,841 men aged 20 years who lived in the study community, 18,495 men (a response rate 64.1%) agreed to participate in the study. A total of 1057 men who complained of symptoms indicative of chronic prostatitis were included in the study. The influences of pain and urinary symptoms on quality of life were determined using logistic regression analysis. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to estimate the predictive ability of each of these variables with respect to quality of life. RESULTS: Results from multivariate analysis showed that both pain and urinary symptoms were associated with an increased likelihood of impaired quality of life, although pain contributed more to a reduced quality of life than urinary symptoms. Relative to men who experienced mild pain, men who experienced moderate pain had a 3.9-fold risk of poor quality of life (odds ratio [OR], 3.87; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.86-5.23; P < 0.001) and those who experienced severe pain had a 15.7-fold risk of reduced quality of life (OR, 15.68; 95% CI, 6.59-37.35; P < 0.001). Moderate urinary symptoms were associated with a 1.4-fold risk of bother (OR, 1.41; 95% CI, 1.01-1.99; P < 0.001) and severe urinary symptoms were associated with 2.4-fold risk (OR, 2.39; 95% CI, 1.37-4.12; P < 0.001), relative to mild urinary symptoms. Comparison of the effects of pain and urinary symptoms showed that pain severity had the most predictive power for bother, quality of life, and quality-of-life impact. The areas under the ROC curves for bother, quality of life, and quality-of-life impact were 71.3%, 69.3% and 72.5%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Urinary symptoms and pain might be associated with an increased likelihood of impaired quality of life in young men with chronic prostatitis-like symptoms. In addition, our findings suggest that pain severity is the most influential variable for determining quality of life in this population.     

The neu-oncogene product in serum and tissue of patients with breast carcinoma

BACKGROUND:: A soluble 105 kD neu-related protein is detectable in conditionedmedium from breast cancer cells expressing the neu-oncogeneproduct and in serum of nude mice bearing tumors that overexpressneu-oncogene PATIENTS AND METHODS:: In 100 patients with primary (n - 33) relapse-free (n - 6) andmetastatic (n - 61) breast carcinoma the serum levels of thesoluble new-related protein were investigated by ELISA techniques.Median age was 57 years, range 26–89 years. RESULTS:: The neu-protein serum levels were below 40 HNU/ml (human neu-antigenunit) in 72 patients and 40 or more HNU/ml in 28 patients. In30 patients with primary breast carcinoma, tested before mastectomy,all serum- neu-protein samples were negative. However, 26 of61 metastazised patients (43%) were serum-neu-protein-positive.In disseminated disease (n – 61), serum-neu-protein-positivitywas more likely to be seen in patients with visceral metastases(18/33 – 54%), than in patients with nonvisceral metastases(8/28 – 28%). Furthermore, monitoring of the serum-neu-proteinlevels reflected clinical course. For 53 patients original paraffin-embeddedtumor material was available for studying immunohistochemicalneu-protein expression. In 39/53 (73%) patients immunohistochemicaland ELISA data showed corresponding results. In 27/30 (90%)patients, from whom sera and tissue could be obtained at thesame time at primary mastectomy, results of immunohistochemistryin primary tumor and serum ELISA were negative and mutuallyconfirmatory. However, the other three patients were positivefor immunohistochemical neu-protein expression in primary tumorbut negative for serum-neu-protein expression. CONCLUSIONS:: Our results suggest that patients with advanced breast cancerand an elevated serum-neu-protein level may have a poor clinicaloutcome. This test might be a useful tool for monitoring patientswith advanced breast carcinoma, but not those with early disease.Further prospective studies are warranted to elucidate the questionof whether this test can contribute to determining prognosisand treatment strategies. breast carcinoma, c-erb-B2, HER-2, neu, oncogene, pl85