Albrechtsenstampe8964
Background Elevated aspartate aminotransferase/alanine aminotransferase (AST/ALT) ratio is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) among the general population. However, an association between AST/ALT ratio and CVD mortality in patients on peritoneal dialysis (PD) has received little attention. Methods A total of 2224 incident PD patients from multi-centers were enrolled from November 1, 2005, to June 30, 2017, in this retrospective cohort study. The primary endpoint was CVD mortality. Eligible patients were divided into high and normal groups according to the AST/ALT ratio cut-off for CVD mortality with the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The associations between the AST/ALT ratio and CVD mortality were evaluated by the Cox regression model. Results Of eligible 1579 patients with a mean age of 49.3 ± 14.6 years, 55.4% of patients were male, 18.1% of patients had diabetes, and 64.2% of patients had hypertension. The prevalence of a high AST/ALT ratio was 76.6% in the cohort population. read more During a follow-up period with 4659.6 patient-years, 316 patients died, of which 193 (61.1%) deaths were caused by CVD episodes. The incidence of CVD mortality in the high group was significantly higher than that in the normal group (13.1% versus 9.2%, P = 0.024). Cumulative CVD mortality rates were significantly different between the two groups by Kaplan-Meier analysis [hazards ratio (HR) = 1.50, 95% confidence index (CI) 1.09-2.07, P = 0.014]. After adjusting for confounding factors, a higher AST/ALT ratio was independently associated with an increased risk of CVD mortality compared with their counterparts (HR = 1.43, 95%CI 1.08-2.41, P = 0.002). Conclusions PD patients with high baseline AST/ALT ratio levels may be at a significant risk of CVD mortality.Background Motor fatigability describes a phenomenon that occurs when exhaustive exercise or physically demanding tasks are executed over an extended period of time. Concerning fast repetitive movements, it is noticeable by a reduction in movement speed (motor slowing, MoSlo) and occurs due to both central and peripheral factors. The aim of the present study was to examine the presence of MoSlo during hand- (HTT) and foot-tapping tasks (FTT) comparing trained football (FB) and handball players (HB) and non-athletes (NA). Furthermore, we were interested in how far anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) might be capable of modulating MoSlo as compared to sham. Methods A total number of 46 participants were enrolled in a sham-controlled, double-blinded, cross-over study. HTT and FTT were performed before, during, after as well as 30 min after 20 min of tDCS over the leg area of the primary motor cortex (M1). Results We could demonstrate that MoSlo during HTT and FTT is a general phenomenon that is observed independent of the type of sports and/or training status. Furthermore, we were able to show a tDCS-induced reduction in MoSlo specifically during FTT in both trained athletes and NA. No such effects could be observed for HTT, indicating local specificity of tDCS-induced effects on a behavioral level. Conclusion We could demonstrate that tDCS is capable of reducing motor fatigability during fast repetitive movements. These findings are of pivotal interest for many sports where fatigability resistance is a limiting factor in maintaining repetitive movement patterns.Background Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) is a significant adverse pregnancy complication, with an incompletely understood pathology. While many entities were proposed to elucidate the pathogenic basis of RPL, only few were significant enough to warrant investigation in all affected couples.. The aim of this study was to provide novel insights into the biological characteristics and related pathways of differentially expressed miRNA (DEMs) and genes (DEGs), in RPL, and construct a molecular miRNAs-mRNAs network. Methods miRNAs and gene expression data were collected, and a number of DEMs and (DEGs) were obtained, and regulatory co-expression network were constructed. Function and enrichment analyses of DEMs were conducted using DIANA-miRPath. DEGs were screened, and were used in generation of protein-protein interaction (PPI) network, using STRING online database. Modularity analysis, and pathway identification operations were used in identifying graph clusters and associated pathways. DEGs were also used for further gene ontology (GO) analysis, followed by analysis of KEGG pathway. Results A total of 34 DEMs were identified, and were found to be highly enriched in TGF-β signaling pathway, Fatty acid metabolism and TNF signaling pathway. Hub miRNAs were selected and were found to be involved in several functional pathways including progesterone-mediated oocyte maturation and Thyroid hormone signaling pathway. Five dysregulated feedback loops involving miRNA and TFs were identified and characterized. Most notably, PPI network analysis identified hub-bottleneck protein panel. These appear to offer potential candidate biomarker pattern for RPL diagnosis and treatment. Conclusions The present study provides novel insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying RPL.An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.Background To evaluate the ability of four scoring systems (Ranson, BISAP, Glasgow, and APACHE II) to predict outcomes of acute pancreatitis (AP) in elderly patients. Methods This was a retrospective study of 918 patients presenting with AP at Zhongda Hospital Southeast University, from January 2015 to December 2018. We divided patients into two groups 368 patients who were ≥ 60 years old, and 550 patients who were less then 60 years old. Four scoring systems were used to analyze all patients. Results The severity of the disease, and mortality were significantly different between the two groups (p less then 0.05), while the difference between the two groups about pancreatic necrosis is statistically insignificant (p = 0.399). The differences of the AUCs (Area under curves) for prediction of outcome of SAP (severe acute pancreatitis) between the two groups were statistically significant for Ranson and APACHE II (p less then 0.05), but not for the differences between BISAP and Glasgow. All the four scoring systems were similar in terms of prediction of pancreatic necrosis and death in both groups.