Publications by authors named "Heine G"

High-density lipoproteins (HDL) exist in various subclasses, with smaller HDL particles possessing the highest anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory properties. Understanding the role of these specific subclasses in chronic kidney disease (CKD) could provide valuable insights into disease progression and potential therapeutic targets. In the present study, we assessed HDL subclass composition in 463 patients with CKD stage 2-4 using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

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Objective: Allergic reactions during dental procedures are suspected frequently. Still, data on the confirmed allergens are rare. This study aims to identify allergens in dentistry and potential cofactors in sensitization.

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Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug use is prevalent in sport however the risk associated with their use in athletes is not well-understood. This review discusses the pharmacology of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and the prevalence of their use in different sports and factors driving this. Use is very high in sports such as professional football and is sometimes by routine without indication and without medical supervision.

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Background: Anaphylaxis is a systemic allergic reaction that is potentially life-threatening. Occupational anaphylaxis is an anaphylaxis that occurs in an occupational context. In this position paper, we propose diagnostic criteria for occupational anaphylaxis and provide an overview of the current state of knowledge in terms of prevalence, triggers, prevention, and management.

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Allergies result from an antigen-specific loss of tolerance against innocuous foreign substances. Allergen immunotherapy (AIT) aims to reverse the pathogenic response and to re-establish physiological tolerance. However, the tolerogenic mechanisms that prevent allergy in healthy and act during AIT are still obscure.

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Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have a high incidence and prevalence of atrial fibrillation (AF). While general treatment strategies for AF may largely be transferred to patients with mild to moderate CKD, patients with advanced CKD-particularly hemodialysis (HD) patients-with AF pose substantial therapeutical challenges to cardiologists and nephrologists. The arguably greatest dilemma is the very limited evidence on appropriate strategies for prevention of stroke and systemic embolism in HD patients with AF, since the risk for both thromboembolic events without oral anticoagulation and severe bleeding events with oral anticoagulation are substantially increased in advanced CKD, compared with the general population.

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Movement is a key means by which animals cope with variable environments. As they move, animals construct individual niches composed of the environmental conditions they experience. Niche axes may vary over time and covary with one another as animals make tradeoffs between competing needs.

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Pro-inflammatory autoantigen-specific CD4 T helper (auto-Th) cells are central orchestrators of autoimmune diseases (AIDs). We aimed to characterize these cells in human AIDs with defined autoantigens by combining human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-tetramer-based and activation-based multidimensional ex vivo analyses. In aquaporin4-antibody-positive neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (AQP4-NMOSD) patients, auto-Th cells expressed CD154, but proliferative capacity and pro-inflammatory cytokines were strongly reduced.

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Article Synopsis
  • Chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients often have lower activity of lecithin-cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT), which is crucial for high-density lipoprotein (HDL) maturation and may raise cardiovascular mortality risk.
  • A study involving 453 non-dialysis CKD patients showed a direct correlation between LCAT activity and smaller, potentially protective HDL particle sizes.
  • The research found that lower LCAT activity was significantly linked to higher risks of all-cause mortality and acute decompensated heart failure, but not to other cardiovascular events or kidney function decline over a 5-year follow-up.
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Background: Chronic kidney disease represents one of the strongest risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, and particularly for heart failure. Despite improved pharmaceutical treatments, mortality remains high. Recently, experimental studies demonstrated that mosaic loss of Y chromosome (LOY) associates with cardiac fibrosis in male mice.

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Objectives: Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) is a gut bacteria-mediated liver metabolite of dietary betaine, choline, and carnitine, which is excreted by glomerular filtration. We studied whether TMAO is excreted by cardiovascular disease (CVD) in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD).

Methods: Among 478 patients with CKD stage G2 (n = 104), G3a (n = 163), G3b (n = 123), and G4 (n = 88), we studied the association between fasting plasma concentrations of TMAO, choline, or betaine at baseline and kidney function, prevalent CVD, and future renal outcomes during a mean follow-up of 5.

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Dialysis access thrombosis is a common complication in the process of care. With the introduction of endovascular AV-fistulas [AVF]s the situation gained complexity with new potential thrombosis localizations. Several thrombectomy methods are available for recanalization of thrombosed AVFs ranging from invasive surgical methods to minimal invasive endovascular approaches.

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Background: Urticaria mostly occurs acutely with a very high probability of spontaneous remission. When it persists for more than 6 weeks a chronic urticaria is manifest, which occurs either spontaneously or inducible by specific triggers. The underlying mechanisms are not fully understood but recent research points to defined pathogenetic factors.

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Background: Novel creatinine-based equations have recently been proposed but their predictive performance for cardiovascular outcomes in participants at high cardiovascular risk in comparison to the established CKD-EPI 2009 equation is unknown.

Method: In 9361 participants from the United States included in the randomized controlled SPRINT trial, we calculated baseline estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) using the CKD-EPI 2009, CKD-EPI 2021, and EKFC equations and compared their predictive value of cardiovascular events. The statistical metric used is the net reclassification improvement (NRI) presented separately for those with and those without events.

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Article Synopsis
  • Cholinergic urticaria (CholU) is a common condition where symptoms like itchy hives arise from sweating, but existing treatments often fail to provide adequate control for patients.
  • In a phase IIa trial, the new oral medication izuforant was tested on adults with CholU who didn't respond well to traditional antihistamines.
  • Results showed that while izuforant did not significantly improve the primary measures of urticaria activity, it did lead to noticeable improvements in patient-reported severity assessments compared to placebo.
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  • Concerns about allergic reactions to dental materials are increasing among patients, prompting a need to analyze current sensitization patterns.
  • A study of 2730 patients revealed that women, particularly those over 40, showed the highest sensitization rates to metals like nickel and palladium, as well as to (meth)acrylates.
  • The findings suggest that patch testing for contact allergies should also include (meth)acrylates and natural substances like propolis, rather than focusing solely on metals.
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Vitamin A and vitamin D metabolites are ligands to nuclear receptors - namely RAR, RXR and VDR. The activation of these receptors in human B cells impacts B cell maturation and function. In this review, we discuss how 9-cis retinoic acid (9cRA) and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (calcitriol) individually or in conjunction, signal through their nuclear receptors and thereby impact B cell differentiation, immunoglobulin class switching to IgA at the expense of IgE, and also B cell migration and homing.

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Patients with combined cardiac and renal diseases are particularly challenging in the routine clinical practice due to the substantial risk profile for increased morbidity and mortality. As cardiorenal patients have often been underrepresented in randomized, controlled interventional trials, guideline recommendations regarding the choice of treatment are often weaker for these individuals than for cardiovascular patients without chronic kidney disease. Furthermore, there are limitations in the approval of certain medications depending on the kidney function.

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Infectious wildlife diseases that circulate at the interface with domestic animals pose significant threats worldwide and require early detection and warning. Although animal tracking technologies are used to discern behavioural changes, they are rarely used to monitor wildlife diseases. Common disease-induced behavioural changes include reduced activity and lethargy ('sickness behaviour').

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Background: Methylation of the Elongation Of Very Long Chain Fatty Acids-Like 2 (ELOVL2) gene promoter may predict premature ageing and cardiovascular risk.

Methods: We studied the cross-sectional associations between blood ELOVL2-methylation and cardiovascular risk factors in 350 patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) stage G2-G4 aged between 22 and 90 years. In a follow-up study for a mean of 3.

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Antigen-specific T lymphocytes are the central regulators of tolerance versus immune pathology against otherwise innocuous antigens and key targets of antigen-specific immune therapy. Recent advances in the understanding of T cells in tolerance and allergy resulted from improved technologies to directly characterize allergen-specific T cells by multiparameter flow cytometry or single-cell sequencing. This unravelled phenotypically and functionally distinct populations, such as Type 2a T helper cells (Th2a), follicular Th cells (Tfh), regulatory T cells (Treg), Type 1 regulatory T cells (Tr1), and follicular T regulatory cells.

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Article Synopsis
  • A new method using electrohydraulic high-frequency shock waves was tested for breaking down stones in a study involving both stones and pig kidneys, evaluating its effectiveness and safety.
  • The experiments revealed no clear link between the number of shock waves, energy applied, and the success in fragmenting stones or causing kidney injuries, suggesting the technical parameters used had little impact.
  • Ultimately, the high-frequency method demonstrated the ability to create small stone fragments quickly, with kidney damage levels similar to those observed in traditional methods using lower frequencies.
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