Serum phosphate and long-term outcome among patients with stable heart failure.

Background: Elevated serum phosphate levels are associated with excess risk for cardiovascular mortality in patients with and without chronic kidney disease and with increased risk for incident heart failure. We determined the association of serum phosphate concentrations with disease severity and long-term outcome in patients with overt heart failure.

Methods And Results: Clinical and laboratory parameters of 974 ambulatory heart failure patients were evaluated.

Concomitant renal and hepatic dysfunctions in chronic heart failure: clinical implications and prognostic significance.

Background: The cardio-renal syndrome is common and eGFR is an established biomarker in chronic heart failure (CHF). Recent findings also indicate a predictive role of liver function abnormalities such as GGT in CHF. We aimed to jointly investigate the characteristics and importance of renal and hepatic failure in CHF.

Liver dysfunction in chronic heart failure: prevalence, characteristics and prognostic significance.

Background: Although abnormal liver morphology and function have long been recognized, characterization and importance of liver dysfunction in heart failure are poorly defined. This study sought to investigate the relevance of circulating liver function tests (LFTs) in an unselected chronic heart failure (CHF) cohort.

Materials And Methods: A total of 1032 consecutive ambulatory patients with CHF were enrolled from 2000 to 2008.

γ-Glutamyltransferase rather than total bilirubin predicts outcome in chronic heart failure.

Background: Gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) and total bilirubin (T-Bil) are elevated and of prognostic significance in chronic heart failure (CHF). This study sought to compare these novel cardiovascular risk markers in CHF.

Methods And Results: We evaluated 1,087 ambulatory patients from our heart failure program.

Bir1 is required for the tension checkpoint.

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosomal passenger proteins Ipl1 (Aurora B) and Sli15 (INCENP) are required for the tension checkpoint, but the role of the third passenger, Bir1, is controversial. We have isolated a temperature-sensitive mutant (bir1-107) in the essential C-terminal region of Bir1 known to be required for binding to Sli15. This allele reveals a checkpoint function for Bir1.

Mps1 phosphorylation of Dam1 couples kinetochores to microtubule plus ends at metaphase.

Background: Duplicated chromosomes are equally segregated to daughter cells by a bipolar mitotic spindle during cell division. By metaphase, sister chromatids are coupled to microtubule (MT) plus ends from opposite poles of the bipolar spindle via kinetochores. Here we describe a phosphorylation event that promotes the coupling of kinetochores to microtubule plus ends.