Parathyroid Hormone Levels in Healthy Children and Adolescents.

Background: Parathyroid hormone (PTH) is important in the assessment of calcium metabolism disorders. However, there are few data regarding PTH levels in childhood and adolescence.

Aim: The aim of this study was to determine PTH levels in a large group of healthy children and adolescents.

Genetic association study of coronary collateral circulation in patients with coronary artery disease using 22 single nucleotide polymorphisms corresponding to 10 genes involved in postischemic neovascularization.

Background: Collateral growth in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) is highly heterogeneous. Although multiple factors are thought to play a role in collateral development, the contribution of genetic factors to coronary collateral circulation (CCC) is largely unknown. The goal of this study was to assess whether functional single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in genes involved in vascular growth are associated with CCC.

The PLAU P141L single nucleotide polymorphism is associated with collateral circulation in patients with coronary artery disease.

Introduction And Objectives: Urokinase-type plasminogen activator, which is encoded by the PLAU gene, plays a prominent role during collateral arterial growth. We investigated whether the PLAU P141L (C > T) polymorphism, which causes a mutation in the kringle domain of the protein, is associated with coronary collateral circulation in a cohort of 676 patients with coronary artery disease.

Methods: The polymorphism was genotyped in blood samples using a TaqMan-based genotyping assay, and collateral circulation was assessed by the Rentrop method.

Global DNA methylation of ischemic stroke subtypes.

Ischemic stroke (IS), a heterogeneous multifactorial disorder, is among the leading causes of mortality and long-term disability in the western world. Epidemiological data provides evidence for a genetic component to the disease, but its epigenetic involvement is still largely unknown. Epigenetic mechanisms, such as DNA methylation, change over time and may be associated with aging processes and with modulation of the risk of various pathologies, such as cardiovascular disease and stroke.