Relationship between blood pressure and persistent epistaxis at the emergency department: a retrospective study.

Background: Persistent nosebleed episodes have occurred in patients with idiopathic epistaxis from Kiesselbach's area despite confirmed location of the bleeding site, but the cause remains unclear. We tried to determine whether persistent epistaxis was associated with blood pressure.

Methods And Results: Between May 2009 and May 2010, the records for 133 adult patients with idiopathic epistaxis from Kiesselbach's area were obtained from the emergency department of our hospital.

Enhanced susceptibility of LDL to oxidative modification in a CTX patient:- role of chenodeoxycholic acid in xanthoma formation.

Cerebrotendinous xanthomatosis (CTX) is a rare familial sterol storage disease, causing multiple xanthomas in tendons and the brain. The underlying biochemical defect is a lack of the hepatic mitochondrial cholesterol 27-hydroxylase involved in the normal biosynthesis of bile acid, resulting in reduced biosynthesis of chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA). It has been reported that administration of CDCA to CTX patients improves neurological disorders and xanthomas of the Achilles tendon.

Scavenger receptor type BI potentiates reverse cholesterol transport system by removing cholesterol ester from HDL.

High-density lipoprotein (HDL) plays an important role in reverse cholesterol transport by removing accumulated cholesterol from extrahepatic tissues. Subsequently, cholesterol ester (CE) on HDL in humans is transported to apolipoprotein B-containing lipoproteins by cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP). CETP deficiency, which is common in the Japanese population, leads to a marked increase in HDL-cholesterol levels due to impaired CE transport from HDL to LDL.