Comparison of definitions of early knee osteoarthritis for likelihood of progression at 2-year and 5-year follow-up: the Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study.

Background: Preventing worsening osteoarthritis (OA) in persons with early OA is a major treatment goal. We evaluated if different early OA definitions yielded enough cases of worsening OA within 2-5 years to make trial testing treatments feasible.

Methods: We assessed different definitions of early OA using data from Multicenter Osteoarthritis (MOST) Study participants who were followed up longitudinally.

Utility of factor D and other alternative complement factors as biomarkers in systemic sclerosis-associated pulmonary arterial hypertension (SSc-PAH).

Background: Activation of the complement cascade is thought to play a role in scleroderma vasculopathy. We previously showed that complement factor D was elevated in patients with limited cutaneous SSc and pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). In this study, we sought to assess multiple relevant components of the complement cascade to determine if they are altered in SSc-PAH, as well as their potential utility as biomarkers of disease severity and progression.

Primary and adjuvant intensity-modulated radiotherapy in oropharyngeal carcinoma patients from a single institution.

Background: To retrospectively access outcome, adverse events and prognostic factors in oropharyngeal carcinoma (OPC) patients treated with intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT).

Methods: Ninety-eight OPC patients were treated between 2000 and 2015. Thirty-three patients received definitive and 65 adjuvant radiotherapy.

Subclinical myocyte injury, fibrosis and strain in relationship to coronary plaque in asymptomatic HIV-infected individuals.

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) rates are increased in HIV. The degree to which myocyte injury, strain, and fibrosis occur prior to clinical disease and relate to coronary plaque in HIV is unknown.

Objective: To investigate newer cardiac biomarkers of subclinical myocyte injury [high-sensitivity troponin T (hs-cTnT)], strain (amino terminal proB-type natriutretic peptide), fibrosis (soluble ST2, Galectin-3), and vascular inflammation (oxidized LDL, lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2) in HIV-infected individuals and non-HIV controls and relate these to coronary plaque by cardiac computed tomography angiography.

Dysfunctional Subcutaneous Fat With Reduced Dicer and Brown Adipose Tissue Gene Expression in HIV-Infected Patients.

Context: HIV patients are at an increased risk for cardiometabolic disease secondary to depot-specific alterations in adipose function, but mechanisms remain poorly understood.

Objective: The endoribonuclease Dicer has been linked to the modulation of brown and white adipocyte differentiation. We previously demonstrated that Dicer knockout mice undergo transformation of brown adipose tissue to white adipose tissue and develop a lipodystrophic phenotype.