Childhood obesity: evidence of an association between plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 levels and visceral adiposity.

Background: Plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) has been considered as a cardiovascular risk factor, mainly because of its strong association with insulin resistance.

Methods: To detect independent predictors of circulating PAI-1 levels in obese pediatric patients, we evaluated 86 subjects (mean age 10.7 +/- 2.

Urinary levels of TGF β-1 and of cytokines in patients with prenatally detected nephrouropathies.

This study aimed to identify noninvasive biomarkers of clinically significant nephrouropathies in patients with antenatal renal and/or urinary tract alterations. Spot-urine levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) were measured in 100 patients with antenatal detected nephrouropathies. Patients were divided in idiopathic hydronephrosis (n = 47), urinary tract malformations (n  = 35), and dysplastic kidneys (n = 18).