European journal of clinical investigation
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Prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) increases with age, but its association with all-cause mortality in older persons remains uncertain. This study investigated the association of all-cause mortality with MetS and its individual components in older men and women. ⋯ Metabolic Syndrome is associated with all-cause mortality in older women but not in men. The association, however, is limited to a narrow age range.
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Eur. J. Clin. Invest. · Sep 2012
Dysregulated adipokine metabolism in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Research concerning the involvement of body composition and systemic inflammatory markers in adipokine metabolism in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is still limited. Therefore, we primarily aimed to investigate the adipokine metabolism in relation to these systemic inflammatory biomarkers and to evaluate possible gender-related differences in the adipokine metabolism in patients with COPD. ⋯ This study shows a gender-dependent dysregulation of adipokine metabolism in patients with COPD compared with BMI-matched controls. Furthermore, results from this study suggest a more prominent role of adiponectin in the systemic response to COPD.
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While large numbers of proteomic biomarkers have been described, they are generally not implemented in medical practice. We have investigated the reasons for this shortcoming, focusing on hurdles downstream of biomarker verification, and describe major obstacles and possible solutions to ease valid biomarker implementation. Some of the problems lie in suboptimal biomarker discovery and validation, especially lack of validated platforms with well-described performance characteristics to support biomarker qualification. ⋯ The implementation effort needs to involve a wide variety of stakeholders (clinicians, statisticians, health economists, and representatives of patient groups, health insurance, pharmaceutical companies, biobanks, and regulatory agencies). Knowledgeable panels with adequate representation of all these stakeholders may facilitate biomarker evaluation and guide implementation for the specific context of use. This approach may avoid unwarranted delays or failure to implement potentially useful biomarkers, and may expedite meaningful contributions of the biomarker community to healthcare.
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Eur. J. Clin. Invest. · Aug 2012
ReviewRegenerative pulmonary medicine: potential and promise, pitfalls and challenges.
Chronic lung diseases contribute significantly to the morbidity and mortality of the population. There are few effective treatments for many chronic lung diseases, and even fewer therapies that can arrest or reverse the progress of the disease. ⋯ Cell-based regenerative therapies for lung diseases offer great promise, with preclinical studies suggesting that the next decade should provide the evidence necessary for their ultimate application to our therapeutic armamentarium.
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Eur. J. Clin. Invest. · Aug 2012
Assessment of the human faecal microbiota: II. Reproducibility and associations of 16S rRNA pyrosequences.
We conducted a pilot study of reproducibility and associations of microbial diversity and composition in faecal microbial DNA. ⋯ With sampling from various parts of a stool, both devices provided good reproducibility on overall microbial diversity and classification for the major phyla, but not for minor phyla. Implementation of these methods should provide insights into how broad microbial parameters, but not necessarily rare microbes, affect risk of various conditions.