Progression of type 2 diabetes and insulin initiation.

The prevalence of type 2 diabetes is significantly greater among African Americans compared to some other ethnic groups. The reasons for this increased incidence are due at least in part to the increased frequency of obesity, especially among African American women. The onset of hyperglycemia, after many years of insulin resistance, is due to beta cell dysfunction that slowly progresses to beta cell failure, necessitating insulin replacement.

Impact of graft material configuration on stent-graft endoleak in vitro.

Purpose: To assess the effect of different attachment patterns between graft materials and stents on type I endoleak.

Materials And Methods: Nitinol stents were covered with a coating of Tegaderm in either a straight-edged pattern across the stent cells or a contoured zigzag pattern conforming to the stent skeleton's honeycomb-shaped cells. The stent-grafts were deployed in an ex vivo circuit across a gap of tubing to simulate an aneurysm cavity.

Brain mapping with single photon emission CT.

Purpose: To investigate the feasibility of performing brain mapping studies by using cortical activation paradigms and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and to evaluate methods of analysis.

Materials And Methods: Twenty healthy volunteers underwent technetium-99m bicisate SPECT under baseline conditions and during either full-field or right hemifield visual stimulation with a black and white reversing checkerboard pattern. Changes in regional cerebral perfusion were measured by using regions of interest (ROIs) and statistical parametric mapping.

Hypercalcemia in an AIDS patient treated with growth hormone.

Method: Recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) is a newly approved treatment for weight loss and wasting in patients with AIDS. We report a male patient with advanced AIDS who developed hypercalcemia 2 weeks after institution of rhGH therapy.

Results: Parathyroid hormone, parathyroid hormone-related peptide and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D levels were suppressed, suggesting that hypercalcemia was mediated through alternative mechanisms.

Tyrosine phosphorylation of the related adhesion focal tyrosine kinase in megakaryocytes upon stem cell factor and phorbol myristate acetate stimulation and its association with paxillin.

We have characterized signaling pathways involving the related adhesion focal tyrosine kinase (RAFTK, also known as PYK2 or CAK-beta) in CMK human megakaryocytic cells. Stem cell factor, which potentiates the growth of megakaryocytes and their progenitors, and phorbol myristate acetate, which causes differentiation of megakaryocytic cell lines, induced the tyrosine phosphorylation of RAFTK but not of focal adhesion kinase. Stimulation of CMK cells with stem cell factor resulted in an increase in the autophosphorylation and kinase activity of RAFTK.