Testosterone and resistance training improved physical performance and reduced fatigue in frail older men: 1 year follow-up of a randomized clinical trial.

Objective: To improve health conditions among hypogonadal men ≥70 years of age using testosterone undecanoate (TU) injections, progressive strength training, and oral supplements of vitamin D, calcium, and protein.

Methods: This study is a 1-year follow-up of a double-blind RCT lasting 20 weeks, including 148 older men ≥70 years old with low testosterone levels and mobility problems. During 52 weeks, 4 groups received either testosterone therapy (TU) or progressive resistance training (Training), both (Combo), or no intervention (Controls).

Beneficial effects of exercise, testosterone, vitamin D, calcium and protein in older men-A randomized clinical trial.

Background: Due to increasing older populations worldwide, injuries, disabilities and deaths caused by falls among the elderly represent a growing human and societal problem. We aimed to improve health among men of at least 70 years of age with low-normal to low testosterone and mobility problems by using testosterone undecanoate (TU) injections, progressive strength training, and oral supplements of vitamin D, calcium and protein.

Methods: This was a single-centre, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial with 148 older men with a median age of 77 (73-81) years, testosterone levels at median 8 (5-9) nmol/L (full range from 1.

Osteosarcopenia: Prevalence and 10-Year Fracture and Mortality Risk - A Longitudinal, Population-Based Study of 75-Year-Old Women.

Osteosarcopenia is the coexistence of low bone mass and sarcopenia. In older women, its prevalence is not well described, and it is unknown if sarcopenia is additive to low bone mass for fracture and mortality risk. The study investigated prevalence of osteosarcopenia and if osteosarcopenia is associated with higher fracture and mortality risk than low bone mass alone in older community-dwelling women.

Longitudinal Measurements of FGF23, Sarcopenia, Frailty and Fracture in Older Community Dwelling Women.

Background: FGF23 has been associated with frailty and functional performance in older individuals, but the association to sarcopenia is unknown.

Objectives: To investigate the association between FGF23, frailty, sarcopenia and fractures in older community dwelling women.

Design: Prospective longitudinal cohort study.

The effect of semantic memory degeneration on creative thinking: A voxel-based morphometry analysis.

Increasing attention is being directed towards explicating the neurocognitive mechanisms of divergent thinking. While neuroimaging studies have tended to dominate the contemporary creativity literature, lesion studies provide important converging evidence by revealing the regions that are not only implicated in, but essential for, task performance. Here we explored the capacity for divergent thinking in semantic dementia (SD), a neurodegenerative disorder characterised by the progressive degeneration of the conceptual knowledge base.

Antimicrobial silver-coating for locking plates shows uneventful osteotomy healing and good biocompatibility results of an experimental study in rabbits.

Infections after internal fixation of fractures remain a challenge. Silver is known for its antimicrobial activity, including activity against multi-resistant strains. The aim of the current study was to analyze the biocompatibility and potential influence on the osteotomy healing process of a silver-coating technology for locking plates compared to silver-free locking plates in an established rabbit model.

Ultrasound-enhanced electrospinning.

Electrospinning is commonly used to produce polymeric nanofibers. Potential applications for such fibers include novel drug delivery systems, tissue engineering scaffolds, and filters. Electrospinning, however, has shortcomings such as needle clogging and limited ability to control the fiber-properties in a non-chemical manner.

Bedding down new words: Sleep promotes the emergence of lexical competition in visual word recognition.

Lexical competition processes are widely viewed as the hallmark of visual word recognition, but little is known about the factors that promote their emergence. This study examined for the first time whether sleep may play a role in inducing these effects. A group of 27 participants learned novel written words, such as banara, at 8 am and were tested on their learning at 8 pm the same day (AM group), while 29 participants learned the words at 8 pm and were tested at 8 am the following day (PM group).

Traceable methods for vertical scale characterization of dynamic stroboscopic scanning white-light interferometer measurements.

Stroboscopic scanning white-light interferometry (SSWLI) can be used for 3D imaging of oscillating samples. It allows measurement of micrometer to millimeter size samples with nanometer vertical precision. Unlike coherent light source systems the SSWLI can measure unambiguously samples with vertical steps.

Stability of two angular stable locking plates for open wedge high tibial osteotomy (HTO): TomoFix™ versus LOQTEQ® HTO plate.

Introduction: The aim of this study was to test the mechanical stability of LOQTEQ® HTO plate in comparison to the TomoFix™ internal plate fixator.

Materials And Methods: An unstable fracture gap model with two standardized polyoxymethylene (POM) cylinders was used for this study. With this model 5 LOQTEQ® HTO plates and 5 TomoFix™ were cyclically loaded.

Stroboscopic scanning white light interferometry at 2.7 MHz with 1.6 µm coherence length using a non-phosphor LED source.

Stroboscopic scanning white light interferometry (SSWLI) allows precise three dimensional (3D) measurements of oscillating samples. Commercial SSWLI devices feature limited pulsing frequency. To address this issue we built a 400-620 nm wideband 150 mW light source whose 1.

Blood transfusion in marrow graft recipients.

Of 182 consecutive patients undergoing allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT), the relative numbers of those who received red blood cells (RBC), platelets (PLT), and granulocytes were 82%, 96%, and 26%, respectively. The transfused patients received an average of 1.26 (SD +/- 2.

Importance of bone marrow cell dose in bone marrow transplantation.

The importance of the size of the infused marrow cell dose (MCD) was investigated in 274 patients undergoing allogeneic BMT between 1975 and 1990. Among those, 65 had acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), 79 acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), 58 chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) and 25 severe aplastic anemia (SAA). MCD was analyzed in bivariate and multivariate analysis together with 6 other clinical factors.

Response to tetanus toxoid immunization after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation.

An ELISA was used to study long-term immunity and immunization responses to tetanus toxoid in 48 bone marrow transplant recipients. Among patients who were seropositive to tetanus before transplant, 51% had lost their seropositivity 1 year later. All patients who were not reimmunized with tetanus toxoid were seronegative 2 years after transplant.

[Application of the Weibull function to the study of in vivo/in vitro correlation].

After transformation of concentration-time curves by integration, the Weibull function is calculated, producing an equation for a derived function representing the plasma (or salivary) kinetics. This model can be employed in the analysis of in vivo/in vitro correlations, since cumulated dissolution percentages can be directly expressed as Weibull functions. A method was developed for prediction of salivary kinetics from in vitro dissolution data and the in vivo kinetics of a solution of the drug.

Allogeneic bone marrow transplantations at Huddinge Hospital and strategies to improve survival.

At Huddinge Hospital 275 patients underwent allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. Among children in first remission of acute leukemia or chronic phase CML (early leukemia), with HLA-identical marrow the 8-year leukemia-free survival was 77%. This was better than 38% in children undergoing transplantation in second to fourth remission (p less than 0.

Cytomegalovirus-infected adherent cells interact synergistically and antagonistically with Staphylococcus aureus protein A in vitro.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) has been shown to exert suppressive effects on the immune response but also to have mitogenic properties. A bacterial product, protein A from Staphylococcus aureus (SpA) was chosen to study possible interactions in vitro between bacterial products and adherent cells incubated with infectious CMV and ultraviolet light (UV)-inactivated CMV. Small amounts of infectious CMV potentiated SpA-induced DNA synthesis and Ig secretion measured by induction of plaque-forming cells (PFC).

Variables predicting bacterial and fungal infections after allogeneic marrow engraftment.

Sixty-seven consecutive patients with aplastic anemia or leukemia who had been treated by allogeneic marrow transplantation and had survived for more than 1 month were surveyed in order to determine the incidence of nonviral infections occurring from 1 month to 3 years after transplantation. Twenty-eight of the 67 patients had one or more infections during this period. Around 20% suffered from pulmonary infections and 20% were classified as having a systemic infection.

Immunological recovery after bone marrow transplantation: role of age, graft-versus-host disease, prednisolone treatment and infections.

Cellular immune recovery was studied in 67 patients who had survived for one month to more than 6 years after bone marrow transplantation (BMT). From a number of immunological parameters the mitogens phytohemagglutinin, concanavalin A and rabbit antibodies to beta 2 microglobulin (A-beta 2m) were chosen because of relevant increases in lymphocyte responses with time after BMT for analysis with exponential functions (covariance analysis). Patients with younger donors had a markedly higher lymphocyte response level and a faster rate of increase with time than patients with older donors.

Induction of immunoglobulin secretion and DNA synthesis in human lymphocytes in vitro by cytomegalovirus preparations.

Immunoglobulin secretion as evidenced by plaque-forming cells (PFC) in an indirect haemolysis-in-gel assay, and DNA synthesis were induced in human blood lymphocytes by the following preparations of cytomegalovirus (CMV): Nucleocapside Nc-CMV antigen, membrane M-CMV antigen, crude C-CMV preparations and CMV-incubated adherent cells. Peak stimulations occurred around day 6 in culture. Nc-CMV and M-CMV only stimulated PFC and DNA synthesis in lymphocytes from CMV seropositive individuals.

Enhancive and suppressive effects of cytomegalovirus on human lymphocyte responses in vitro.

Virus-specific lymphocyte proliferation in the presence of cytomegalovirus (CMV) without and with monocytes was studied in healthy persons. Three categories of lymphocyte response could be distinguished: seropositive low responders, naturally high responders, and lymphocyte populations responding well to CMV antigen in the presence of added CMV-incubated autologous monocytes. This latter category could be identified by preincubating autologous monocytes with CMV.

Pharmacokinetics, safety and preliminary clinical experiences using foscarnet in the treatment of cytomegalovirus infections in bone marrow and renal transplant recipients.

Fifty seven episodes of severe cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection were treated with iv foscarnet in 13 bone marrow and 33 renal graft recipients. The ranges of the daily dose, duration, average steady state level and total dose were 23-268 mg/kg, 2-46 days, 42-400 mg/l and 2-399 g, respectively. Adverse effects, such as decreased haemoglobin, decreased renal function and increased serum calcium, were observed in a few patients only.