Genetic associations of bradykinin type 2 receptor, alpha-adrenoceptors and endothelial nitric oxide synthase with blood pressure and left ventricular mass in outpatients without overt heart disease.

Background: Physiological pathways such as bradykinin, renin-angiotensin, neurohormones and nitric oxide have been shown to play an important role in the regulation of cardiovascular function. Genetic variants of these pathways may impact blood pressure and left ventricular (LV) mass in different populations. To evaluate associations of genetic polymorphisms of bradykinin B2 receptor (BDKRB2), alpha-adrenergic receptors (ADRA) and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) on the modulation of the blood pressure and the left ventricular mass.

Bivariate survival modeling: a Bayesian approach based on Copulas.

Copula models have become increasingly popular for modeling multivariate survival data. In this paper we review some of the recent work that has been appeared for copula model for bivariate survival data and propose a Bayesian modeling. Our approach is very flexible with respect to the choice of marginal distributions and, depending on the copula model employed, it is possible to have a class of variation for the dependence parameter.