Bioimpedance analysis highlights changes in body composition at the early stages of impairment of kidney transplant function.

OBJECTIVE: Kidney transplantation restores renal filtration, although it does not achieve the function of 2 native kidneys, and with time it may involute back to chronic renal failure. We hypothesized that bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) might highlight differences for body compartments among kidney transplants (Tx) with different filtration rates. METHODS: Thirty transplantation patients (19 male, 11 female) were studied at 62.4+/-26.6 months postsurgery and were divided into 3 groups: good creatinine clearance (crCl, mL/min/1.73 m2; >65.0), borderline (35.0相似文献   

Is chronic nitrate therapy associated with a different clinical presentation of acute coronary syndrome?

BACKGROUND: Nitrate therapy can induce ischemic preconditioning with a consequent increase in tolerance to ischemia. In the context of acute coronary syndromes (ACS), nitrates may result in a different presentation. with greater protection. OBJECTIVES: To investigate in a population of patients with ACS whether previous chronic use of nitrates results in a different presentation of ACS. METHODS: We studied 287 patients (65 +/- 13 years, 66% male) admitted to our department in the first six months of 2005 with ACS (with and without ST-segment elevation). Of these, 8% were under nitrate therapy at the time of admission. In this group, 27% presented ACS without ST-segment elevation, while in the group without nitrates this value was 58% (p = 0.005). By univariate analysis, the use of nitrates was a predictor of the preferential occurrence of non-ST-segment elevation ACS (OR 0.27, 95% CI 0.10-0.71). After correction for the potential influence of variables (age, gender, previous revascularization and smoking) by multivariate logistic regression, nitrate therapy remained a borderline predictor of clinical presentation as non-ST-segment elevation ACS (OR 0.37, 95% CI 0.13-1.04, p = 0.059). CONCLUSIONS: Previous use of nitrates was associated with a tendency to present as non-ST-segment elevation ACS. This finding may be explained by the hypothesis that nitrates induce pharmacological preconditioning, reducing the transmural extent of myocardial infarction.     

Accuracy of a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for CagA in patients from Brazil with and without gastric carcinoma

We validated a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the detection of anti-CagA antibodies in Brazilian patients with Helicobacter pylori infection. The test presented high sensitivity (97.4%) and specificity (88.9%) when employed in patients without gastric carcinoma. However, in gastric carcinoma patients, the test was neither sensitive nor specific enough to detect cagA-positive H. pylori infection.     

DADOS-Survey: an open-source application for CHERRIES-compliant Web surveys

Background  

The Internet has been increasingly utilized in biomedical research. From online searching for literature to data sharing, the Internet has emerged as a primary means of research for many physicians and scientists. As a result, Web-based surveys have been employed as an alternative to traditional, paper-based surveys. We describe DADOS-Survey, an open-source Web-survey application developed at our institution that, to the best of our knowledge, is the first to be compliant with the Checklist for Reporting Results of Internet E-Surveys (CHERRIES). DADOS-Survey was designed with usability as a priority, allowing investigators to design and execute their own studies with minimal technical difficulties in doing so.     

Lithium Chloride Therapy Fails to Improve Motor Function in a Transgenic Mouse Model of Machado-Joseph Disease

The accumulation of misfolded proteins in neurons, leading to the formation of cytoplasmic and nuclear aggregates, is a common theme in age-related neurodegenerative diseases, possibly due to disturbances of the proteostasis and insufficient activity of cellular protein clearance pathways. Lithium is a well-known autophagy inducer that exerts neuroprotective effects in different conditions and has been proposed as a promising therapeutic agent for several neurodegenerative diseases. We tested the efficacy of chronic lithium (10.4 mg/kg) treatment in a transgenic mouse model of Machado-Joseph disease, an inherited neurodegenerative disease, caused by an expansion of a polyglutamine tract within the protein ataxin-3. A battery of behavioral tests was used to assess disease progression. In spite of activating autophagy, as suggested by the increased levels of Beclin-1, Atg7, and LC3-II, and a reduction in the p62 protein levels, lithium administration showed no overall beneficial effects in this model concerning motor performance, showing a positive impact only in the reduction of tremors at 24 weeks of age. Our results do not support lithium chronic treatment as a promising strategy for the treatment of Machado-Joseph disease (MJD).     

Port Wine “Caviar”: Product Development,Sensorial Analysis,and Marketing Evaluation

The aim of this work was to develop a new product, port wine “caviar,” consisting of products based on red and white port wines used in different concentrations. Sample R+ consisted of red port wine at a concentration of 90%, sample R- was red port at 75%, sample W+ was white port at 90%, and sample W- was white port at 75%, all (m/m). The use of two types of port is related to different colors and the two concentrations related to the intensity. The results from the sensory analysis showed that the red port “caviar” at 90% was the best among the products tested, either in the preference test or in the evaluation of the individual characteristics. Furthermore, the market study revealed that this product can be successfully commercialized, particularly for the gourmet kitchen, which is one the main usages identified by the respondents.     

Diffusion tensor imaging of normal brain development

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is an MRI technique that can measure the macroscopic structural organization in brain tissues. DTI has been shown to provide information complementary to relaxation-based MRI about the changes in the brain’s microstructure. In the pediatric population, DTI enables quantitative observation of the maturation process of white matter structures. Its ability to delineate various brain structures during developmental stages makes it an effective tool with which to characterize both the normal and abnormal anatomy of the developing brain. This review will highlight the advantages, as well as the common technical pitfalls of pediatric DTI. In addition, image quantification strategies for various DTI-derived parameters and the normal brain developmental changes associated with these parameters are discussed.