Evaluating low and high vitamin D levels in Ecuadorian cities from 2018 to 2022: interrupted time series and a cross-sectional study.

Objectives: To identify differences in the mean vitamin D concentrations in samples obtained from a private laboratory in Quito and to explore their relationship with the pre-pandemic and pandemic periods spanning from 2018 to 2022.

Design: A combination of an interrupted time series design and a retrospective cross-sectional approach.

Setting And Participants: The study involved 9285 participants who had their 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels tested at a well-known private laboratory in Quito, Ecuador, from 2018 to 2022.

Mutations associated with Helicobacter pylori antimicrobial resistance in the Ecuadorian population.

Aims: We described the presence of Helicobacter pylori (HP) and estimated the prevalence of primary and secondary resistance using molecular detection in gastric biopsies of Ecuadorian patients.

Methods And Results: 66.7% (238/357) of the patients demonstrated the presence of HP using CerTest qPCR.

Evidence of SARS-CoV-2 reinfection within the same clade in Ecuador: A case study.

Objectives: To date, reported SARS-CoV-2 reinfection cases are mainly from strains belonging to different clades. As the pandemic advances, a few lineages have become dominant in certain areas leading to reinfections by similar strains. Here, we report a reinfection case within the same clade of the initial infection in a symptomatic 28-year-old-male in Quito-Ecuador.

Study of class I and II HLA alleles in 30 ecuadorian patients with rheumatoid arthritis compared with alleles from healthy and affected subjects with other rheumatic diseases.

Introduction: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic systemic inflammatory autoimmune disease that originates from a disabling disorder. To date, the etiology of RA is unknown. However, the existence of genetically susceptible individuals was considered.

A functional ABCA1 gene variant is associated with low HDL-cholesterol levels and shows evidence of positive selection in Native Americans.

It has been suggested that the higher susceptibility of Hispanics to metabolic disease is related to their Native American heritage. A frequent cholesterol transporter ABCA1 (ATP-binding cassette transporter A1) gene variant (R230C, rs9282541) apparently exclusive to Native American individuals was associated with low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels, obesity and type 2 diabetes in Mexican Mestizos. We performed a more extensive analysis of this variant in 4405 Native Americans and 863 individuals from other ethnic groups to investigate genetic evidence of positive selection, to assess its functional effect in vitro and to explore associations with HDL-C levels and other metabolic traits.

Collagen turnover is diminished by different clones of skin fibroblasts from early- but not late-stage systemic sclerosis.

To investigate collagen turnover and proliferation in dermal fibroblasts from patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) and their relationship with disease duration and cellular subpopulations, SSc patients were grouped by disease duration (less than 2.5 years or more than 7 years). Control and SSc fibroblasts were obtained from skin biopsies.