Croatian medical journal
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Croatian medical journal · Aug 2006
Chronic respiratory symptoms in Croatian Adriatic island metapopulations.
To investigate the prevalence of chronic respiratory symptoms in 9 metapopulations on Adriatic islands in Croatia, and the relationship between respiratory symptoms and individual genetic background. ⋯ Differences in respiratory findings among the island inhabitants were often associated with smoking prevalence. Interaction of residence on northern Adriatic islands and immigrant background proved to be the strongest predictor for the occurrence of allergy symptoms. This study indicated that environmental factors played a very important role in the occurrence of respiratory symptoms.
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Croatian medical journal · Aug 2006
Case-control study of risk factors for lumbar intervertebral disc herniation in Croatian island populations.
To investigate the risk factors for lumbar intervertebral disc herniation (L4/L5 or L5/S1) severe enough to require surgery of the lower spine among 9 isolated populations of Croatian islands and to evaluate predictive value, sensitivity, and specificity of a simple screening test based on the understanding of the risk factors in this population. ⋯ Occurrence of lumbar disk herniation severe enough to require surgery of the lower spine can be predicted using a very simple set of criteria. This type of screening could reduce the need for surgery in isolated communities through prevention within primary health care.
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Croatian medical journal · Aug 2006
Overview of genetic-epidemiological studies in ethnically and demographically diverse isolates of Dagestan, Northern Caucasus, Russia.
To assess genetic diversity and genetic distances among isolated populations from Dagestan. ⋯ The results support the hypothesis that cross-population design provides unique opportunities for observing reliable ancestral haplotypes with disease predisposing loci, as well as population-specific linked loci.
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Croatian medical journal · Aug 2006
Strategy for mapping quantitative trait loci (QTL) by using human metapopulations.
To present a novel strategy for mapping quantitative trait loci (QTL), using human metapopulations. The strategy is based on the expectation that in geographic clusters of small and distinct human isolates, a combination of founder effect and genetic drift can dramatically increase population frequency of rare QTL variants with large effect. In such cases, the distribution of QT measurements in an (affected) isolate is expected to deviate from that observed in neighboring isolates. ⋯ Early epidemiological assessment supports the feasibility of the proposed strategy. Clusters of individuals with extreme QT values responsible for over-representation of single villages can usually be linked to a larger pedigree and may be useful for further QTL mapping, using linkage analysis.
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Croatian medical journal · Aug 2006
Historic exposure to plague and present-day frequency of CCR5del32 in two isolated island communities of Dalmatia, Croatia.
To assess the frequency of deletion of 32 base pairs in a CCR5 gene, shown to confer resistance to HIV infection, in two isolated island communities of Dalmatia, Croatia, with different histories of exposure to (plague) during the medieval period and beyond. ⋯ This study does not rule out the possible role of plague in positive selection at CCR5del32. However, analyses of further neighboring isolated island communities need to be made in order to provide more substantial support for this hypothesis.