Relationship between glycemic control and diabetes-related hospital costs in patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Background: Diabetes mellitus requires continuous medical care and patient self-management in order to prevent short-term complications and decrease the risk of long-term complications, which can result in substantial increases in the total economic burden of the disease. Findings from randomized clinical trials have shown that improved glycemic control may reduce the risk of long-term complications as long as a target for hemoglobin A1c is not set below 7% for intensive glycemic control. However, limited data from clinical practice are available regarding the relationship between glycemic control and medical costs associated with diabetes care.

Epigenetic regulation of Wnt signaling pathway in urological cancer.

Constitutive activation of the Wnt signaling pathway is a common feature of solid tumors and contributes to uncontrolled cell-growth and impaired differentiation. We hypothesized that gene silencing mediated through aberrant promoter methylation of upstream Wnt antagonist genes might result in beta-catenin accumulation, resulting in constitutive Wnt activation. Wnt antagonist genes (SFRP1, WIF1, APC and CDH1) and CTNNB1 promoter methylation was examined in genomic DNA extracted from 12 urological cancer cell lines and correlated with CTNNB1 mRNA expression.

Asthma incidence and accuracy of diagnosis in the Portuguese sentinel practice network.

Aims: Asthma is frequently under-diagnosed with a wide variation in incidence rates. We aimed to assess how physicians in a Portuguese sentinel practice network perform using standardised diagnostic criteria.

Method: Patients consulting one of the 43 network physicians with complaints suggestive of asthma were enrolled in the study over a four-year period.

Approach combining on-line metal exchange and tangential-flow ultrafiltration for in-situ characterization of metal species in humic hydrocolloids.

This paper deals with the development and optimization of an analytical procedure using ultrafiltration and a flow-injection system, and its application in in-situ experiments to characterize the lability and availability of metal species in humic-rich hydrocolloids. The on-line system consists of a tangential flow ultrafiltration device equipped with a 3-kDa filtration membrane. The concentration of free ions in the filtrate was determined by atomic-absorption spectrometry, assuming that metals not complexed by aquatic humic substances (AHS) were separated from the complexed species (M-AHS) retained by the membrane.

Tubercular granuloma in the myocardium: an autopsy report.

Granulomatous myocarditis is a rare disorder of the myocardium, and is usually associated with various inflammatory and autoimmune conditions. We report granulomatous myocarditis in an apparently healthy 58-year-old Indian man, who developed sudden chest pain and died while being escorted to the hospital. At the autopsy, no gross distinct cardiac lesions were observed.

[Is the middle ear the first filter of frequency selectivity?].

Introduction And Objectives: The cochlea has traditionally been considered as the first frequency selection filter in the auditory pathway due to the contraction of its external ciliated cells. Yet, much evidence has emerged from work carried out during experiments with animals, some of which is anatomical (connections between the auditory pathway and motor nuclei of the middle ear muscles) and other physiological, which indicates that the middle ear might be the first filter through which specific sounds from noisy environments may initially be isolated.

Methods: In cooperation with the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the Technical School of Industrial Engineering at the University of Valladolid (UVa) we have developed and refined a new admittance meter capable of evaluating changes in impedance that occur in the human middle ear depending on frequency.

The aggressiveness of urothelial carcinoma depends to a large extent on lymphovascular invasion--the prognostic contribution of related molecular markers.

Aims: Bladder cancer is the second most common malignancy of the urogenital region. The majority of bladder cancer deaths occur as a consequence of metastatic disease. Blood vessel density (BVD), a surrogate marker for angiogenesis, has been shown to be predictive of progression and poor prognosis, as well as lymphatic vessel density (LVD).

Hyoid skeleton, its related muscles, and morphological novelties in the frog Lepidobatrachus (anura, ceratophryidae).

Many traits of the skull of ceratophryines are related to the capture of large prey independently of aquatic or terrestrial feeding. Herein, detailed descriptions of the development of hyoid skeleton and the anatomy of muscles responsible for hyoid and tongue movements in Lepidobatrachus laevis and L. llanensis are provided and compared with those of other neobatrachians.

Remifentanil bolus dose is a safe procedure to control intense noxious stimuli in hypertensive neurosurgical patients.

Background: Patients with hypertension may be more prone to develop hypotension as a consequence of opioid administration under general anesthesia. The hemodynamic and bispectral index responses to a remifentanil bolus in neurosurgical hypertensive patients under target-controlled infusion with propofol and remifentanil are addressed.

Material/methods: Ten healthy patients and 10 patients with diagnosed hypertension under pharmacological treatment were studied.

Pontine cavernous haemangioma - an incidental autopsy finding.

Cavernous haemangiomas belong to a group of vascular malformations that are developmental defects of the vascular bed. Occurrence of an asymptomatic cavernoma in the pons is uncommon and worthy of record. At autopsy, cavernomas have to be differentiated from traumatic haemorrhagic lesions in head injury cases.

Virus-host coevolution: common patterns of nucleotide motif usage in Flaviviridae and their hosts.

Virus-host biological interaction is a continuous coevolutionary process involving both host immune system and viral escape mechanisms. Flaviviridae family is composed of fast evolving RNA viruses that infects vertebrate (mammals and birds) and/or invertebrate (ticks and mosquitoes) organisms. These host groups are very distinct life forms separated by a long evolutionary time, so lineage-specific anti-viral mechanisms are likely to have evolved.

Role of TLR ligands in epicutaneously induced contrasuppression.

Our previous work showed that epicutaneous (EC) immunization in mice with protein antigen (Ag) induced an Ag-independent unresponsiveness mediated by suppressor CD4(+)8(+) T cells (Ts), which inhibited contact hypersensitivity (CS). Simultaneous EC immunization with Ag and various Toll-like receptor (TLR) ligands reversed skin-induced suppression. Our present study shows that this process activates Ag-specific T contrasuppressor (Tcs) cells and leads to the protection of CS effector T cells from suppression.

Community nutrition in Spain: advances and drawbacks.

Scientific evidence has placed community nutrition among the front-line strategies in health promotion. Community nutrition in different regions of Spain has developed at an unequal pace. Early initiatives in the mid 1980s provided good-quality population data and established a basis for nutrition surveillance including individual body measurements, dietary intake data, information on physical activity, and biomarkers.

Combined analysis of EGF+61G>A and TGFB1+869T>C functional polymorphisms in the time to androgen independence and prostate cancer susceptibility.

Proliferative mechanisms involving the epidermal growth factor (EGF) and transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta(1)) ligands are potential alternative pathways for prostate cancer (PC) progression to androgen independence (AI). Thus, the combined effect of EGF and TGFB1 functional polymorphisms might modulate tumor microenvironment and consequently its development. We studied EGF+61G>A and TGFB1+869T>C functional polymorphisms in 234 patients with PC and 243 healthy individuals.

Individual effect-site concentrations of propofol at return of consciousness are related to the concentrations at loss of consciousness and age in neurosurgical patients.

Study Objective: To investigate whether a patient's propofol effect-site concentration at return to consciousness (ROC) was related to the propofol effect-site concentration at loss of consciousness (LOC) and to patients' individual demographic parameters.

Design: Prospective study.

Setting: Operating room.

Epicutaneous immunization with protein antigen in the presence of TLR4 ligand induces TCR alpha beta+CD4+ T contrasuppressor cells that reverse skin-induced suppression of Th1-mediated contact sensitivity.

Our previous work showed that epicutaneous (EC) immunization of mice with different protein Ags applied on the skin in the form of a patch induces a state of subsequent Ag-nonspecific unresponsiveness due to suppressor CD4+8+ T cells (Ts) that inhibit Th1-mediated contact sensitivity (CS) reactions via released TGF-beta. In the present work we show that EC immunization with Ag together with the TLR4 ligand LPS induced cells that could prevent suppression by the Ag-nonspecific Ts. These up-regulatory cells, called contrasuppressor T cells (Tcs), belong to a population of Ag-specific TCRalphabeta CD4+ lymphocytes and are different from Th1 CD4+ cells that mediate the CS reaction.

The impact of psoriasis on health care costs and patient work loss.

Background: There are few comprehensive estimates of the cost of psoriasis in the United States.

Objective: We sought to quantify the incremental direct medical and indirect work loss costs associated with psoriasis.

Methods: A de-identified claims database from 31 self-insured employers during the period 1998 to 2005 was used.

Schistosoma mansoni: Microarray analysis of gene expression induced by host sex.

Schistosoma mansoni is a digenetic trematode and a human parasite responsible for high social and economic impact. Although some authors have studied the effect of host hormones on parasites, not much is known about the effects of host sex on gene expression in Schistosomes. In order to study gene transcripts associated with the host sex, we compared the gene expression profiles of both male and female unisexual adult S.

What do physicians know about normal pressure hydrocephalus and when did they know it? A survey of 284 physicians.

Normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) is a relatively new neurologic disorder first described by Salamon Hakim of Bogotá, Colombia, in 1965. NPH is characterized by three symptoms - impaired gait, incontinence and dementia - and an anatomic abnormality, i.e.

Genetic polymorphism in EGF is associated with prostate cancer aggressiveness and progression-free interval in androgen blockade-treated patients.

Purpose: Most prostate cancer patients develop resistance to androgen deprivation treatment, resulting in hormone resistance. Epidermal growth factor (EGF) activates several pro-oncogenic intracellular pathways inducing proliferation, differentiation, and tumorigenesis in epithelial cells. The EGF-EGF receptor pathway seems to be especially relevant in hormone-resistant prostate cancer stage.

Brain tumors may alter the relationship between bispectral index values and propofol concentrations during induction of anesthesia.

Study Objective: To compare propofol-predicted effect-site concentrations (PropCe) and bispectral index (BIS) of the electroencephalogram during induction of anesthesia in patients with small brain tumors and to analyze BIS and PropCe at loss of consciousness (LOC).

Design: Prospective investigation.

Setting: Operating theater of a university hospital.

The direct and indirect cost burden of atopic dermatitis: an employer-payer perspective.

The goal of this study was to quantify the incremental direct medical and indirect work-loss costs associated with patients diagnosed with atopic dermatitis (AD). A de-identified administrative claims database was used comprising 5.1 million covered beneficiaries from 31 Fortune 500 self-insured employers between 1998 and 2005.

The lifestyle of Corynebacterium urealyticum derived from its complete genome sequence established by pyrosequencing.

Corynebacterium urealyticum is a lipid-requiring, urealytic bacterium of the human skin flora that has been recognized as causative agent of urinary tract infections. We report the analysis of the complete genome sequence of C. urealyticum DSM7109, which was initially recovered from a patient with alkaline-encrusted cystitis.

In situ application of a cellulose bag and an ion exchanger for differentiation of labile and inert metal species in aquatic systems.

This work involved the development and application of a new analytical procedure for in-situ characterization of the lability of metal species in aquatic systems by using a system equipped with a diffusion membrane and cellulose organomodified with p-aminobenzoic acid groups (DM-Cell-PAB). To this end, the DM-Cell-PAB system was prepared by adding cellulose organomodified with p-aminobenzoic acid groups (Cell-PAB) to pre-purified cellulose bags. After the DM-Cell-PAB system was sealed, it was examined in the laboratory.