Discrimination of vertebral fragility fracture with lumbar spine bone mineral density measured by quantitative computed tomography.

Background/objective: This study is a case-control study to explore risk and protective factors, including clinical data and bone mineral density (BMD), affecting vertebral body fragility fracture in elderly men and postmenopausal women. In addition, we investigate the effectiveness of lumbar spine BMD by quantitative computed tomography (QCT) in discriminating vertebral fragility fracture.

Methods: In this case-control study, 52 males and 198 females with vertebral fragility fracture were compared with sex- and age-matched healthy controls to analyse the risk factors that may affect vertebral fragility fracture.

Carnitine/organic cation transporter 2 (OCTN2) contributes to rat epididymal epithelial cell growth and proliferation.

Carnitine/organic cation transporter 2 (OCTN2) is localized at the basolateral membrane of epididymal epithelial cells, and mainly serves to reabsorb carnitine as an essential factor for sperm maturation; however, its functional features in epididymal epithelial cells have remained unclear. We isolated primary epididymal epithelial cells from rat epididymides and verified their phenotype by detecting the presence of cytokeratin-19 (CK-19, an epithelial cell marker) and the absence vimentin (an interstitial cell marker). We found that cultured epididymal epithelial cells isolated from rat epididymides expressed high levels of CK-19 but barely expressed vimentin.

Evaluation of medical treatment for peripheral arterial disease in Chinese high-risk patients.

Background: Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is an important manifestation of systemic atherosclerosis and is associated with elevated cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the use of antiplatelet agents, statins and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI) in Chinese high-risk cardiovascular (CV) patients with PAD, with an emphasis on the need for aggressive medical management of all atherosclerotic manifestations.

Methods And Results: Medical records from 5,263 Chinese patients at high risk of CV were evaluated for the use of antiplatelet agents, statins and ACEI in patients with and without PAD.