Transcriptome-wide association study identifies genes associated with bladder cancer risk.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have detected several susceptibility variants for urinary bladder cancer, but how gene regulation affects disease development remains unclear. To extend GWAS findings, we conducted a transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) using PrediXcan to predict gene expression levels in whole blood using genome-wide genotype data for 6180 bladder cancer cases and 5699 controls included in the database of Genotypes and Phenotypes (dbGaP). Logistic regression was used to estimate adjusted gene-level odds ratios (OR) per 1-standard deviation higher expression with 95% confidence intervals (CI) for bladder cancer risk.

Psychological Features of Fibromyalgia in the Psychological Health Services.

Patients with health pathologies may exhibit psychological features in addition to medical symptomatology. A sample of 76 Italian women with an age range between 23 and 78 years old (mean = 50.22 ± 10.

Unraveling the Pleiotropic Role of High-Density Lipoproteins (HDLs) in Autoimmune Rheumatic Diseases.

Autoimmune rheumatic diseases (ARDs) exhibit an elevated incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The elevation of inflammatory and immune stress accompanying ARDs contributes to atherosclerosis development and alterations in lipid metabolism and lipoprotein profile add to cardiovascular (CV) risk. The plasma concentration of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLc) is inversely related to CVD and serves as a discriminator of CV risk.

The Composition of the HDL Particle and Its Capacity to Remove Cellular Cholesterol Are Associated with a Reduced Risk of Developing Active Inflammatory Rheumatoid Arthritis.

In rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the risk of cardiovascular death is 50% higher compared to the general population. This increased risk is partly due to the systemic inflammation characteristic of RA and changes in the lipoprotein profiles. This study investigated plasma lipid levels, lipid ratios, and the composition and functionality of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) in control individuals and RA subjects based on the disease's inflammatory score (DAS28).

Short and sweet: Comparing strategies for the reduction of questionnaires on self-criticism and social safeness while preserving construct validity.

Measuring psychological traits with standardised questionnaires is an essential component of clinical practice and research; however, patients and participants risk fatigue from overly long and repetitive measures. When developing the short form of a questionnaire, the most widely used method for selecting an item subset uses factor analysis loadings to identify the items most closely related to the psychological construct being measured. However, this approach will tend to select highly correlated, homogeneous items and might therefore restrict the breadth of the construct examined.