High dietary inflammatory index associates with inflammatory proteins in plasma.

Background And Aim: Unhealthy dietary habits and highly caloric foods induce metabolic alterations and promote the development of the inflammatory consequences of obesity, insulin resistance, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Describing an inflammatory effect of diet is difficult to pursue, owing lacks of standardized quali-quantitative dietary assessments. The Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) has been proposed as an estimator of the pro- or anti-inflammatory effect of nutrients and higher DII values, which indicate an increased intake of nutrients with pro-inflammatory effects, relate to an increased risk of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases and we here assessed whether they reflect biologically relevant plasmatic variations of inflammatory proteins.

Effect of treatment with pravastatin or ezetimibe on endothelial function in patients with moderate hypercholesterolemia.

Background/aim: Statin treatment improves endothelial function. It is matter of debate, however, if this effect of statins is due to their action on low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) or to other non-lipidic (pleiotropic) effects. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the effect of pravastatin on endothelial function is mediated by pleiotropic effects.

Circulating soluble receptor for advanced glycation end products is inversely associated with body mass index and waist/hip ratio in the general population.

Advanced glycation end products, AGEs, and its specific receptor, RAGE, are involved in vascular complications. A role for the soluble form of RAGE (sRAGE), which acts as a decoy for AGE, has been documented in patients with diabetes but no information is available in non-diabetic subjects. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of plasma levels of sRAGE with cardiometabolic risk factors in the general population.

Post-prandial endothelial dysfunction in hypertriglyceridemic subjects: molecular mechanisms and gene expression studies.

Objective: Triglyceride-rich lipoproteins (TGRLs) are a cardiovascular risk factor and induce endothelial dysfunction. In the present study, we investigated the effects of post-prandial TGRLs from type IV hyperlipidemic subjects on endothelial activation addressing the effects of the lipoproteins on intracellular pathways and gene expression.

Methods: Thirty fasted hypertriglyceridemic patients were given an oral fat load (OFL) and blood samples were collected before the OFL (T0) and 2, 4, 6 and 8h thereafter.

Differentiation of small adnexal masses based on morphologic characteristics of transvaginal sonographic imaging: a multicenter study.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the diagnostic accuracy of transvaginal sonographic examination of small adnexal masses by simple descriptive sonographic scoring.

Methods: In a prospective multicenter study, 4 teaching hospitals and 2 regional hospitals with homogeneous standard sonographic equipment and operator experience recruited 677 consecutive patients with small adnexal masses of less than 5 cm. Morphologic scoring was obtained for each mass and recorded.

Lipoprotein remnants and endothelial dysfunction in the postprandial phase.

The objective of this work was to study whether changes in remnant lipoprotein (RLP) plasma levels during the postprandial phase relate to alterations of the endothelial function. Fasted patients (15 moderately dyslipidemic men) were given an oral fat load (OFL), and blood samples were collected before the OFL ingestion (T0) and 2, 4, 6, and 8 h (T2, T4, T6, T8) thereafter. Endothelial function, determined as flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) of the brachial artery, was assessed at the same time points.