Characteristics of recovery of adrenocortical function after treatment for Cushing's syndrome due to pituitary or adrenal adenomas.

Objective: Surgical cure of Cushing's syndrome (CS) is followed by adrenocortical insufficiency, which may be long-lasting. The aim was to elucidate recovery of adrenocortical function, defined as a normal cortisol response to ACTH stimulation, and the relation to ACTH in patients cured for CS due to pituitary Cushing's disease (CD) or adrenal (AA) adenomas.

Design: A retrospective study including 32 patients considered surgically cured for CS (18 CD, 14 AA).

Phosphorylation of the regulatory beta-subunit of protein kinase CK2 by checkpoint kinase Chk1: identification of the in vitro CK2beta phosphorylation site.

The regulatory beta-subunit of protein kinase CK2 mediates the formation of the CK2 tetrameric form and it has functions independent of CK2 catalytic subunit through interaction with several intracellular proteins. Recently, we have shown that CK2beta associates with the human checkpoint kinase Chk1. In this study, we show that Chk1 specifically phosphorylates in vitro the regulatory beta-subunit of CK2.

Landscape changes in agrarian landscapes in the 1990s: the interaction between farmers and the farmed landscape. A case study from Jutland, Denmark.

Recent landscape changes in a farmed landscape are analysed and related to farm and farmer characteristics. It is assumed that farm and farmer characteristics serve as mediators of large scale or macro driving forces of change-in the present case, a changing farming context including demands for a more environmentally friendly farming practise and a reduced output. The results are based on multivariate analyses of data collected from structured interviews of 160 farmers in a case study area, in central Jutland, measuring 5000 ha.

Incidence of atrial fibrillation and thromboembolism in a randomised trial of atrial versus dual chamber pacing in 177 patients with sick sinus syndrome.

Objective: To analyse the occurrence of atrial fibrillation (AF) and thromboembolism in a randomised comparison of rate adaptive single chamber atrial pacing (AAIR) and dual chamber pacing (DDDR) in patients with sick sinus syndrome and normal atrioventricular (AV) conduction, in which left atrial dilatation and decreased left ventricular fractional shortening had been observed in the DDDR group.

Methods: 177 consecutive patients with sick sinus syndrome (mean (SD) age 74 (9) years, 104 women) were randomly assigned to treatment with one of three pacemakers: AAIR (n = 54), DDDR with a short rate adaptive AV delay (n = 60) (DDDR-s); or DDDR with a fixed long AV delay (n = 63) (DDDR-l). Analysis was intention to treat.

Sinus and paced P wave duration and dispersion as predictors of atrial fibrillation after pacemaker implantation in patients with isolated sick sinus syndrome.

The aim of this study was to prospectively evaluate the sinus and the paced P wave duration and dispersion as predictors of AF after pacemaker implantation in patients with isolated sick sinus syndrome (SSS). The study included 109 (69 women, mean age 72 +/- 11 years) patients with SSS, 59 with bradycardia-tachycardia syndrome (BTS). A 12-lead ECG was recorded before pacemaker implantation and during high right atrial and septal right atrial pacing at 70 and 100 beats/min.

A capillary electrophoresis method to study postmortem proteolysis in relation to pork tenderness.

Identification of factors that determine meat tenderness is of high priority. The aim of this work was to develop a method that can detect indicators of proteolysis in meat early postmortem. The method was validated on pork samples.

A randomized comparison of atrial and dual-chamber pacing in 177 consecutive patients with sick sinus syndrome: echocardiographic and clinical outcome.

Objectives: A randomized trial was done to compare single-chamber atrial (AAI) and dual-chamber (DDD) pacing in patients with sick sinus syndrome (SSS). Primary end points were changes in left atrial (LA) size and left ventricular (LV) size and function as measured by M-mode echocardiography.

Background: In patients with SSS and normal atrioventricular conduction, it is still not clear whether the optimal pacing mode is AAI or DDD pacing.

Intra-abdominal obesity and metabolic risk factors: a study of young adults.

Objective: To assess the relative importance of the extent and regional distribution of fat for metabolic risk factors in young adults.

Design: Cross-sectional study of findings from a hospital-based case-control study.

Subjects: A total of 46 adult Danish Caucasian patients (40 men and six women, aged 34-54 y).

Increasing the cooking temperature of meat does not affect nonheme iron absorption from a phytate-rich meal in women.

The effect of increasing cooking temperatures of meat on nonheme iron absorption from a composite meal was investigated. Cysteine-containing peptides may have a role in the iron absorption enhancing effect of muscle proteins. Heat treatment can change the content of sulfhydryl groups produced from cysteine and thereby affect iron absorption.

Nonheme-iron absorption from a phytate-rich meal is increased by the addition of small amounts of pork meat.

Background: Muscle tissue from various sources is known to promote nonheme-iron absorption. However, systematic studies of the dose dependency of this effect of meat on iron absorption from an inhibitory meal with low amounts of meat are lacking.

Objective: We investigated the dose-response effect of small amounts of meat on nonheme-iron absorption from a meal presumed to have low iron bioavailability.

Dietary-induced changes of muscle growth rate in pigs: effects on in vivo and postmortem muscle proteolysis and meat quality.

The effects of various growth rates in pigs induced by four different feeding strategies on the activity of the calpain system and on postmortem (PM) muscle proteolysis and tenderness development were studied. An increased growth rate may be caused by an increased protein turnover, which results in up-regulated levels of proteolytic enzymes in vivo that, in turn, possibly will affect PM tenderness development. It can be hypothesized that increased proteolytic activity pre-slaughter will increase the PM tenderization rate.

Complex of pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A and the proform of eosinophil major basic protein. Disulfide structure and carbohydrate attachment.

Pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A (PAPP-A) is a metzincin superfamily metalloproteinase responsible for cleavage of insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-4, thus causing release of bound insulin-like growth factor. PAPP-A is secreted as a dimer of 400 kDa but circulates in pregnancy as a disulfide-bound 500-kDa 2:2 complex with the proform of eosinophil major basic protein (pro-MBP), recently shown to function as a proteinase inhibitor of PAPP-A. Except for PAPP-A2, PAPP-A does not share global similarity with other proteins.

Localization of carbohydrate attachment sites and disulfide bridges in limulus alpha 2-macroglobulin. Evidence for two forms differing primarily in their bait region sequences.

The primary structure determination of the dimeric invertebrate alpha(2)-macroglobulin (alpha(2)M) from Limulus polyphemus has been completed by determining its sites of glycosylation and disulfide bridge pattern. Of seven potential glycosylation sites for N-linked glycosylation, six (Asn(275), Asn(307), Asn(866), Asn(896), Asn(1089), and Asn(1145)) carry common glucosamine-based carbohydrates groups, whereas one (Asn(80)) carries a carbohydrate chain containing both glucosamine and galactosamine. Nine disulfide bridges, which are homologues with bridges in human alpha(2)M, have been identified (Cys(228)-Cys(269), Cys(456)-Cys(580), Cys(612)-Cys(799), Cys(657)-Cys(707), Cys(849)-Cys(876), Cys(874)-Cys(910), Cys(946)-Cys(1328), Cys(1104)-Cys(1155), and Cys(1362)-Cys(1475)).

Smoking, low density lipoprotein cholesterol, fibrinogen and myocardial infarction before 41 years of age: a Danish case-control study.

Background: Of major coronary risk factors, smoking and total cholesterol were significant in a previous Danish case-control study of myocardial infarction at a young age.

Objective: To determine whether smoking was an important coronary risk factor in the context of new and major anthropometric and biochemical risk factors for myocardial infarction in individuals less than 41 years of age.

Methods: A prevalence hospital-based matched case-control study of young individuals.

Optimized conditions for MDCK permeability and turbidimetric solubility studies using compounds representative of BCS classes I-IV.

The solubility enhancing effects of various excipients, including their compatibility with in vitro permeability (P(app)) systems, was investigated using drugs representative of Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS) classes I-IV. Turbidimetric solubility determination using nephelometry and transport experiments using MDCK Strain I cell monolayers were employed. The highest usable concentration of each excipient [dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), ethanol, hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin (HPCD), and sodium taurocholate] was determined by monitoring apical (AP) to basolateral (BL) [14C]mannitol apparent permeability (P(app)) and the transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) in transport experiments done at pH 6.

Total and free insulin-like growth factor I, insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3 and acid-labile subunit reflect clinical activity in acromegaly.

The aim was to evaluate, markers of disease activity in acromegaly in relation to perceived disease activity. Thirty-seven consecutively treated, acromegalic patients, classified by clinical symptoms as inactive (n=16), slightly active (n=10) and active (n=11), entered the study. When evaluating the inactive and the active groups, we found that positive and negative predictive values (PV(pos), PV(neg)) for clinical disease activity of total and free insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) were 0.

Increased risk of osteoporotic fractures in patients with Cushing's syndrome.

Objective: To evaluate if fracture risk was increased in patients with Cushing's syndrome due to the increased endogenous cortisol production.

Design: Cohort.

Methods: A self-administered questionnaire was mailed to 125 patients with Cushing's syndrome diagnosed between 1985 and 1999 in Denmark.

Walking training of patients with hemiparesis at an early stage after stroke: a comparison of walking training on a treadmill with body weight support and walking training on the ground.

Objective: To compare the effect of walking training on a treadmill with body weight support (BWS) and walking training on the ground at an early stage of rehabilitation in patients with hemiparesis after stroke.

Design: Randomized controlled experimental study.

Setting: Multicentre design; three departments of rehabilitation medicine.

Farmers' involvement in landscape activities: an analysis of the relationship between farm location, farm characteristics and landscape changes in two study areas in Jutland, Denmark.

Farmers are important agents in rural landscape management as they modify landscape elements to suit their needs. The purpose of this study is to investigate if patterns of landscape activities undertaken by farmers are related to certain farm characteristics and if landscape activities vary from one location to another. With this purpose, we investigated the differences between the level of farmers' involvement in landscape activities in two study areas in central Jutland, Denmark.

The effect of ageing on the water-holding capacity of pork: role of cytoskeletal proteins.

The water-holding capacity (WHC) of pork decreases post-mortem but has been shown to increase during subsequent ageing. In order to test a hypothesis that water-holding capacity increases during ageing due to degradation of the cytoskeleton, WHC was followed 10 days post-mortem and related to the extent of proteolysis of cytoskeletal proteins. A fast method for measuring WHC in small meat samples was developed by the use of centrifugation.

AV block and changes in pacing mode during long-term follow-up of 399 consecutive patients with sick sinus syndrome treated with an AAI/AAIR pacemaker.

This retrospective study included a large cohort of consecutive patients primarily implanted at Skejby University Hospital with an AAI/AAIR pacemaker because of sick sinus syndrome (SSS) from July 1981 to July 1999. The primary aim of the study was to analyze the risk of developing AV block during long-term follow-up. A secondary aim was to study the incidence and reasons for changes in pacing mode caused by other than AV block.