The trials and tribulations of vitamin D: time for the 'sunshine' vitamin to come in out of the cold - or just more broken promises?

We are presently faced with the competing notions of modern life being a 'state of vitamin D depletion', implying a widespread need to supplement with vitamin D, or, the opposite view, which is that the present evidence can only support at best selective targeted vitamin D intervention. This is important as there is evidence that over the last 40-50 years there were downwards global trends in serum 25(OH)D concentrations, while individual consumption of vitamin D as supplements rose. For this reason and many others, a large population-based interventional study, the VITAL trial, was designed to try to establish the health value of vitamin D supplementation.

Repeated renal infarction in native and transplanted kidneys due to left ventricular thrombus formation caused by antiphospholipid antibody syndrome.

Antiphospholipid syndrome can be a feature of several underlying conditions, such as lupus, but it can also occur idiopathically. Diagnosis usually comes after investigation of recurrent venous or arterial thromboses, emboli, or hypertension/proteinuria where the kidney is involved and is usually confirmed by laboratory testing. We describe a case of a man with a myocardial infarction who developed mural thrombus in an akinetic left ventricular segment but then who recurrently embolized first to one of his native kidneys and then later to a transplanted kidney.

Differential effect of Helicobacter pylori eradication on time-trends in brady/hypokinesia and rigidity in idiopathic parkinsonism.

Background: We examine the effect of eradicating Helicobacter in idiopathic parkinsonism (IP). Marked deterioration, where eradication-therapy failed, prompted an interim report in the first 20 probands to reach de-blinding. The null-hypothesis, "eradication has no effect on principal outcome, mean stride length at free-walking speed," was rejected.