Clausenthurston6837

Background Accurate body weight perception is important to maintaining an ideal body weight. In Africa, a preference for a larger body size and its association with health and wellbeing has been well documented. It remains speculative if these perceptions have changed or improved and if differences exist among rural and urban dwellers. see more The main aim of this study was to assess the body weight and obesity perceptions among rural and urban Ghanaians. Methods This cross-sectional study involved 565 participants. The Stunkard figure rating scale was used to assess the body weight perception of participants. Participants were to choose from the scale figures they perceived to represent their current body weight, desired body weight, ideal body weight, ideal look for a wealthy person, ideal look for a woman with children, and ideal look for a woman without children. Additionally, participants were asked to describe obesity and its threat to health in their terms. Responses of participants to the above questions are n of fat (91.0%) and viewed it as a threat to health (91.0%). Differences were observed among rural and urban participants with regard to the figure chosen as ideal for a wealthy person. Conclusion Results from this study show an improvement in obesity perception and the acknowledgment of obesity as a threat to health. There was a desire for a normal-weight figure among study participants. Attribution of current body weight to hereditary and childbirth seems to be a hindrance to the implementation of actions to achieve this normal figure weight. Public health education, screening for overweight and obesity, creation of supportive food environments, and culture-sensitive interventions are promising to curbing the obesity menace. Copyright © 2020 Nana Ama Frimpomaa Agyapong et al.Interleukin-33 (IL-33) is a member of the IL-1 family of proteins that are produced by a variety of cell types in multiple tissues. Under conditions of cell injury or death, IL-33 is passively released from the nucleus and acts as an "alarmin" upon binding to its specific receptor ST2, which leads to proinflammatory or anti-inflammatory effects depending on the pathological environment. To date, numerous studies have investigated the roles of IL-33 in human and murine models of diseases of the nervous system, digestive system, pulmonary system, as well as other organs and systems, including solid organ transplantation. With graft rejection and ischemia-reperfusion injury being the most common causes of grafted organ failure or dysfunction, researchers have begun to investigate the role of IL-33 in the immune-related mechanisms of graft tolerance and rejection using heart transplantation models. In the present review, we summarize the identified roles of IL-33 as well as the corresponding mechanisms by which IL-33 acts within the progression of graft rejection after heart transplantation in animal models. Copyright © 2020 Jie Chen et al.This study aims to study the efficiency of the Waist-to-Height Ratio (WHtR) for determining coronary artery disease. It compares the frequency of abnormal WHtR, as a proxy for abdominal obesity, to that of body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC). It also relates the findings to other cardiometabolic risk factors in University Hospital patients. A cross-sectional study design was used, where a sample of 200 patients (142 males and 58 females) who attended the adult cardiac clinic were purposively included. BMI, WC, and WHtR were measured, where frequencies of WHtR were compared to those of BMI and WC. The findings were related to the history of coronary artery disease (CAD) and history of cardiometabolic risk factors, including diabetes mellitus (DM), hypertension (HTN), and hyperlipidemia. Majority of the male patients were older, taller, and had a lower BMI value. It also showed that the prevalence of dyslipidemia and CAD was higher in male patients. No significant difference between both genders was noticed for weight, WC, WHtR, hypertension, or DM. BMI was least associated with high-risk cardiac population in both males and females (39.4% and 60.3%), followed by WC (84.5% and 96.6%, respectively). WHtR showed the highest association with gender (male 98.6% and females 98.3%). These findings were noticed in patients with all risk factors. WHtR is superior to BMI and WC for determining the elevated risk of diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and CAD in a single university institute. The role of WHtR in both normal and diseased Saudi population should be delineated. Copyright © 2020 Mostafa Q. Alshamiri et al.Cardiovascular development critical genes are key determinants in cardiovascular diseases. We hypothesize that SNPs in these genes may play critical roles in the development of hypertension. Therefore, we enrolled 516 paired hypertension patients and controls in a total of 2,742 subjects in a cross-sectional population study by the propensity score matching (PSM) method. Twenty-one SNPs from 5 cardiovascular developmental related genes were detected by the improved multiplex ligase detection reaction (iMLDR) method. Conditioned logistic regression under three different genetic models, namely, additive model, dominant model, and recessive model, was performed. The odds ratio (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were used to estimate the associations of SNPs with hypertension. We found that the distribution of genotypes at rs833061, rs3025010, and rs699947 within the VEGFA gene and the distribution of alleles at rs3025010 in hypertension subjects were different from those in controls. Both rs833061 and rs3025010 were associated with hypertension in crude models, but only rs3025010 remains associated with hypertension after adjusting with confounding factors in the additive model and the dominant model. We also found that hypertension subjects with C/T and C/C genotypes at rs3025010 had lower SBP and DBP levels. In addition, rs3025010 could interact with rs6784267 within the CCM3 gene in the association. In conclusion, our findings suggest that rs3025010 may play a role in the pathogenesis of hypertension, which may be a potential target for individualized prevention and treatment of hypertension. Copyright © 2020 Zhiqiang Zhao et al.