Fitzsimmonsholt2359

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is an emerging disease worldwide. We investigated the relationship between blood pressure (BP) control and parafoveal retinal microvascular changes in patients with CKD. This case-control study enrolled 256 patients with CKD (stage 3-5) and 70 age-matched healthy controls. Optical coherence tomography angiography showed lower superficial vascular plexus (SVP) vessel density, lower deep vascular plexus (DVP) vessel density, and larger SVP flow void area in the CKD group. The BP parameters at enrollment and during the year before enrollment were collected in patients with CKD. Partial correlation was used to determine the relationship between BP parameters and microvascular parameters after controlling for age, sex, diabetes mellitus, axial length, and intraocular pressure. The maximum systolic blood pressure (SBP) (p = 0.003) and within-patient standard deviation (SD) of SBP (p = 0.006) in 1 year were negatively correlated with SVP vessel density. The average SBP (p = 0.040), maximum SBP (p = 0.001), within-patient SD of SBP (p  less then  0.001) and proportion of high BP measurement (p = 0.011) in 1 year were positively correlated with the SVP flow void area. We concluded that long-term SBP was correlated with SVP microvascular injury in patients with CKD. Superficial retinal microvascular changes may be a potential biomarker for prior long-term BP control in these patients.Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is one of the most common types of leukemia. With the recent advances in sequencing technology and the growing body of knowledge on the genetics of AML, there is increasing concern about cancer predisposing germline mutations as well as somatic mutations. As familial cases sharing germline mutations are constantly reported, germline predisposition gene mutations in patients with AML are gaining attention. We performed genomic sequencing of Korean patients diagnosed with AML to identify the prevalence and characteristics of germline predisposition mutations. Among 180 patients, germline predisposition mutations were identified in 13 patients (13/180, 7.2%, eight adults and five children). Germline mutations of BLM, BRCA1, BRCA2, CTC1, DDX41, ERCC4, ERCC6, FANCI, FANCM, PALB2, and SBDS were identified. Most of the mutations are in genes involved in DNA repair and genomic stability maintenance. Patients harboring germline mutations tended to have earlier onset of AML (p = 0.005), however, the presence of germline mutations did not showed significant association with other clinical characteristics or treatment outcome. Since each mutation was rare, further study with a larger number of cases would be needed to establish the effect of the mutations.The only known population of Conolophus marthae (Reptilia, Iguanidae) and a population of C. subcristatus are syntopic on Wolf Volcano (Isabela Island, Galápagos). No gene flow occurs suggesting that effective reproductive isolating mechanisms exist between these two species. Chemical signature of femoral pore secretions is important for intra- and inter-specific chemical communication in squamates. As a first step towards testing the hypothesis that chemical signals could mediate reproductive isolation between C. marthae and C. subcristatus, we compared the chemical profiles of femoral gland exudate from adults caught on Wolf Volcano. We compared data from three different years and focused on two years in particular when femoral gland exudate was collected from adults during the reproductive season. Samples were processed using Gas Chromatography coupled with Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). We identified over 100 different chemical compounds. Non-Metric Multidimensional Scaling (nMDS) was used to graphically represent the similarity among individuals based on their chemical profiles. Results from non-parametric statistical tests indicate that the separation between the two species is significant, suggesting that the chemical profile signatures of the two species may help prevent hybridization between C. marthae and C. subcristatus. anti-EGFR inhibitor Further investigation is needed to better resolve environmental influence and temporal reproductive patterns in determining the variation of biochemical profiles in both species.The study aimed to examine the sex specific association of obesity with cortisol metabolism in a sample of older community dwelling people. The cross-sectional analysis included 394 men and 375 women (aged 65-90 years) of the population-based KORA-Age study. Multivariable regression analyses were employed to examine the association between cortisol samples (serum and salivary samples of morning after awakening (M1), 30 min later (M2) and at late night (LNSC)). Obesity was calculated as waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and body mass index (BMI). Cortisol levels were not significantly different between obesity measures except for elevated serum cortisol (P = 0.02) levels in individuals with a low WHR. Higher M1 levels were especially apparent in women with normal BMI. Serum cortisol levels were inversely related to WHR (P = 0.004) and CARAUC was inversely associated with BMI (P = 0.007). Sex-stratified analytic models revealed that both obesity measures showed a non-linear association with cortisol diurnal pattern (M1/LNSC) in men. Impaired cortisol patterns emerged at both very ends of the body weight distribution. These findings do not support a cortisol driven obesity etiology in an older population and even point to an inverse association of body weight with cortisol levels. Differences of cortisol secretion patterns in generalized and abdominal fat distribution were marginal.Several drug candidates have been proposed and tested as the latest clinical treatment for coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19). Chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, ritonavir/lopinavir, and favipiravir are under trials for the treatment of this disease. The hyperpolarization technique has the ability to further provide a better understanding of the roles of these drugs at the molecular scale and in different applications in the field of nuclear magnetic resonance/magnetic resonance imaging. This technique may provide new opportunities in diagnosis and research of COVID-19. Signal amplification by reversible exchange-based hyperpolarization studies on large-sized drug candidates were carried out. We observed hyperpolarized proton signals from whole structures, due to the unprecedented long-distance polarization transfer by para-hydrogen. We also found that the optimal magnetic field for the maximum polarization transfer yield was dependent on the molecular structure. We can expect further research on the hyperpolarization of other important large molecules, isotope labeling, as well as polarization transfer on nuclei with a long spin relaxation time.