European journal of clinical investigation
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Eur. J. Clin. Invest. · May 2011
White blood cell count and psychomotor cognitive performance in the elderly.
White blood cell (WBC) count is associated with many inflammatory diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and hypertension. Research on the relationship of WBC count and cognition in the elderly is relatively sparse. This study examined the association between WBC count and cognitive performance in older adults. ⋯ Higher WBC counts, even within the normal range, were associated with poor psychomotor cognitive performance in the elderly.
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Eur. J. Clin. Invest. · Apr 2011
The associations of different measurements of obesity with cardiovascular risk factors in Chinese.
Obesity increases the risks of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). This study examined the optimal cut-off values for overweight and obesity for CVD risks using different anthropometric indices in middle-aged Taiwanese. ⋯ Obesity, presenting with higher BMI, WC, WC/HC and WC/H, is closely related to CVD risk factors. WC/H is the best predictor of CVD risk factors in middle-aged Taiwanese.
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Eur. J. Clin. Invest. · Apr 2011
The cross-sectional association between insulin resistance and circulating complement C3 is partly explained by plasma alanine aminotransferase, independent of central obesity and general inflammation (the CODAM study).
Complement C3, a central component of the innate immune system is increased in subjects with obesity and type 2 diabetes and is a novel risk factor for cardiovascular disease. We hypothesized that the strong association between insulin resistance and circulating amounts of C3 may be related to hepatic fat accumulation -independent of central obesity itself and of a general low-grade inflammatory response. ⋯ Plasma ALT can explain 14·2% of the strong association between insulin resistance and circulating concentrations of complement C3, independent of central obesity and general inflammation.
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Eur. J. Clin. Invest. · Apr 2011
Polymorphism of the palladin gene and cardiovascular outcome in patients with atherosclerosis.
A single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the palladin gene (PALLD, rs7439293) has recently been reported to be associated with coronary heart disease (CHD) in two case-control studies as well as in a large population-based cohort (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study, ARIC). Its clinical relevance, however, has not been evaluated prospectively. We investigated whether the risk allele (A) of PALLD rs7439293 (G>A) is associated with the occurrence of future major cardiovascular events (MACE) in a cohort of patients with prevalent carotid atherosclerosis. ⋯ The A-allele of PALLD rs7439293 was not associated with progressive carotid atherosclerosis as measured by duplex Doppler sonography nor did it represent a risk factor for adverse cardiovascular outcome among patients with prevalent carotid atherosclerosis.
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No systematic study has been published yet on the long-term efficacy of attenuated androgens in hereditary angioedema (HAE). Our aim was to conduct a follow-up study in two (German and Hungarian) cohorts of HAE patients (45 and 39 patients, respectively) undergoing uninterrupted treatment for 6 years with similar (starting dose 128 ± 78 mg per day and 136 ± 70 mg per day, respectively) and constant doses of danazol. ⋯ The differences observed between these cohorts cannot be related to drug dose, the age or gender distribution of subjects or the age at the onset of symptoms or the length of diagnostic delay in the patients. There were, however, marked differences in the baseline pattern of attacks: significantly - 3 times - more abdominal attacks were recorded in German patients. Further studies are necessary to clarify the mechanism of these findings.