Woodruffburnette3393

The aim of this study was to compare the handgrip strength (HGs), assessed with a cylindrical-shape grip device, of fibromyalgia syndrome (FM) patients with healthy subjects and to demonstrate the relationship between HGs characteristics and disease severity. Consecutive female patients with FM were enrolled and compared to a group of healthy women. The correlations between HGs curve characteristics and disease severity indices were studied through the Spearman's rho correlation coefficients (rho). The HGs threshold distinguishing the FM presence was determined using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves analysis. Multivariate regression analysis was used in order to assess the contribution of covariates on the HGs. 110 patients (mean age 53.8 ± 12.4 years) and 111 healthy controls have been enrolled. Altogether all parameters related to the analysis of HGs were worse in patients with FM. The HGs cut-off distinguishing the presence of a FM was 14.2 Kg. A negative correlation was found between disease severity indices and peak force (p  less then  0.001). Factors significantly associated with HGs area under the curve (AUC) in multivariate analysis were the Widespread Pain Index (WPI) (p = 0.003) and the revised Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQR) (p = 0.016). HGs is reduced in female FM patients and is inversely related to disease severity. The force-time curves analysis may be used as a complementary tool in the FM assessment and monitoring.Climatic factors can influence the establishment and growth of wood species, but little is known about the effect of these factors on monodominant communities in wetlands. Therefore, we asked how climatic factors, such as ENSO (El Niño-Southern Oscillation), precipitation and flooding, influence growth and establishment of the dominant species Erythrina fusca in the Pantanal. We determined the age of sampled individuals, the age of the population and evaluated the effects of climate on tree growth. We obtained samples for dendrochronological analyses using destructive (seven individuals) and non-destructive methods. We cross-dated and built a chronology, correlating results with climatic factors. We sampled 0.6 ha of the population and separated individuals into diameter classes to determine age based on diameter/age ratio obtained through dendrochronological analyses. We obtained a chronology with individuals up to 34 years old, while in the population sample, the oldest individual was 54 years old. The factors that influenced growth during the study period were precipitation (positive correlation) and El Niño (negative correlation). E. fusca individuals seem to grow more during the period of highest precipitation, and El Niño events reduce precipitation in the Pantanal, resulting in a decrease in the growth of E. fusca individuals. We detected a decrease of young individuals in the last nine years, which seems to be related to the decrease in minimum flood levels. This indicates a future decline in the number of individuals. These results allow us to propose measures to protect these monodominant formations, which mainly involve avoiding further anthropic activities, that could reduce flooding levels.In this issue we would like to thank all those listed below for taking the time to review for the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2019-your generosity is much appreciated and we hope your association with the journal continues in the future.PURPOSE TNR, encoding Tenascin-R, is an extracellular matrix glycoprotein involved in neurite outgrowth and neural cell adhesion, proliferation and migration, axonal guidance, myelination, and synaptic plasticity. Tenascin-R is exclusively expressed in the central nervous system with highest expression after birth. The protein is crucial in the formation of perineuronal nets that ensheath interneurons. However, the role of Tenascin-R in human pathology is largely unknown. We aimed to establish TNR as a human disease gene and unravel the associated clinical spectrum. METHODS Exome sequencing and an online matchmaking tool were used to identify patients with biallelic variants in TNR. RESULTS We identified 13 individuals from 8 unrelated families with biallelic variants in TNR sharing a phenotype consisting of spastic para- or tetraparesis, axial muscular hypotonia, developmental delay, and transient opisthotonus. Four homozygous loss-of-function and four different missense variants were identified. CONCLUSION We establish TNR as a disease gene for an autosomal recessive nonprogressive neurodevelopmental disorder with spasticity and transient opisthotonus and highlight the role of central nervous system extracellular matrix proteins in the pathogenicity of spastic disorders.An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.Prevention for contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) is limited by the lack of a single predictor. As activin A is upregulated in heart failure and chronic kidney disease, we aimed to clarify the association between activin A levels and renal outcomes after coronary angiography (CAG). This prospective observational study included 267 patients who received CAG between 2009 and 2015. Bromelain molecular weight CIN was defined as elevation of serum creatinine to >0.5 mg/dL or to >25% above baseline within 48 hours after CAG. During follow-up, laboratory parameters were measured every 3-6 months. Renal decline was defined as>2-fold increase in serum creatinine or initiation of dialysis. The patients were stratified into tertiles according to serum activin A levels at baseline. High activin A tertile was significantly associated more CIN and renal function decline compared to low activin A tertile (all p  less then  0.001). After adjusting potential confounding factors, high serum activin A tertiles was associated to CIN (Odds ratio 4.49, 95% CI 1.07-18.86, p = 0.040) and renal function decline (Hazard ratio 4.49, 95% CI 1.27-11.41, p = 0.017) after CAG.Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) are an important histopathologic feature of colorectal cancer that confer prognostic information. Previous clinical and epidemiologic studies have found that the presence and quantification of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes are significantly associated with disease-specific and overall survival in colorectal cancer. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis, establishing pooled estimates for survival outcomes based on the presence of TILs in colon cancer. PubMed (Medline), Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and ClinicalTrials.gov were searched from inception to April 2017. Studies were included, in which the prognostic significance of intratumoral tumor infiltrating lymphocytes, as well as subsets of CD3, CD8, FOXP3, CD45R0 lymphocytes, were determined within the solid tumor center, the invasive margin, and tumor stroma. Random-effects models were calculated to estimated summary effects using hazard ratios. Forty-three relevant studies describing 21,015 patients were included in our meta-analysis.