Urinary Prostaglandin E2 Excretion and the Risk of Cardiovascular and Kidney Disease.

Background: Inhibition of prostaglandin synthesis by nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs is associated with cardiovascular mortality and kidney disease. This study hypothesizes that urinary prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and PGE2 metabolite (PGEM) excretions are markers of cardiovascular and kidney health, because they reflect both systemic and kidney-derived PGE2 production.

Methods And Results: PGE2 and PGEM were measured in spot urine samples from 2291 participants (≥55 years old) of the population-based Rotterdam Study.

The flare of care for rare: per aspera ad astra for rare lung diseases!

https://bit.ly/3HpqGX1

Online mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for fatigue in patients with sarcoidosis (TIRED): a randomised controlled trial.

Background: Sarcoidosis-associated fatigue is highly prevalent and is often reported as the most burdensome symptom of sarcoidosis. Management of fatigue is challenging, and evidence-based therapies are lacking. In this TIRED trial, we aimed to assess the effects of a 12-week online mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (eMBCT) on fatigue.

Bidirectional Association Between Kidney Function and Atrial Fibrillation: A Population-Based Cohort Study.

Background Consensus lacks concerning a bidirectional association between kidney function and atrial fibrillation (AF), but this is crucial information for prevention/treatment efforts for both chronic kidney disease and AF. Therefore, we investigated the bidirectional association between kidney function and AF. Methods and Results This study was a prospective cohort study including 9228 participants (mean age, 64.

ALK-positive histiocytosis: a new clinicopathologic spectrum highlighting neurologic involvement and responses to ALK inhibition.

ALK-positive histiocytosis is a rare subtype of histiocytic neoplasm first described in 2008 in 3 infants with multisystemic disease involving the liver and hematopoietic system. This entity has subsequently been documented in case reports and series to occupy a wider clinicopathologic spectrum with recurrent KIF5B-ALK fusions. The full clinicopathologic and molecular spectra of ALK-positive histiocytosis remain, however, poorly characterized.

EU postmarket surveillance plans for medical devices.

Purpose: Recent public health safety issues involving medical devices have led to a growing demand to improve the current passive-reactive postmarket surveillance (PMS) system. Various European Union (EU) national competent authorities have started to focus on strengthening the postmarket risk evaluation. As a consequence, the new EU medical device regulation was published; it includes the concept of a PMS Plan.

Treatment Effectiveness of Azithromycin and Doxycycline in Uncomplicated Rectal and Vaginal Chlamydia trachomatis Infections in Women: A Multicenter Observational Study (FemCure).

Background: Rectal infections with Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) are prevalent in women visiting a sexually transmitted infection outpatient clinic, but it remains unclear what the most effective treatment is. We assessed the effectiveness of doxycycline and azithromycin for the treatment of rectal and vaginal chlamydia in women.

Methods: This study is part of a prospective multicenter cohort study (FemCure).

Pigmentation-Independent Susceptibility Loci for Actinic Keratosis Highlighted by Compound Heterozygosity Analysis.

Actinic keratosis (AK) is a skin disease frequently found in European elderly, and it represents the precursor of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. Our recent genome-wide association study highlighted DNA variants in two pigmentation genes, IRF4 and MC1R, that confer AK risk in Europeans. Here, we performed a genome-wide search for relaxed forms of compound heterozygosity in association with AK using our recently developed software CollapsABEL.

Subclinical Abnormalities in Echocardiographic Parameters and Risk of Sudden Cardiac Death in a General Population: The Rotterdam Study.

Background: Subclinical cardiac dysfunction has been associated with increased mortality, and heart failure increases the risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD). Less well known is whether subclinical cardiac dysfunction is also a risk factor for SCD. Our objective was to assess the association between echocardiographic parameters and SCD in a community-dwelling population free of heart failure.

Common genetic determinants of lung function, subclinical atherosclerosis and risk of coronary artery disease.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) independently associates with an increased risk of coronary artery disease (CAD), but it has not been fully investigated whether this co-morbidity involves shared pathophysiological mechanisms. To identify potential common pathways across the two diseases, we tested all recently published single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with human lung function (spirometry) for association with carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) in 3,378 subjects with multiple CAD risk factors, and for association with CAD in a case-control study of 5,775 CAD cases and 7,265 controls. SNPs rs2865531, located in the CFDP1 gene, and rs9978142, located in the KCNE2 gene, were significantly associated with CAD.

Does disturbed sleeping precede symptoms of anxiety or depression in toddlers? The generation R study.

Objective: To examine whether sleep problems in infancy and early toddlerhood precede symptoms of anxiety or depression at 3 years.

Methods: Data on specific sleep problems at 2 months and 24 months were available for 4,782 children participating in a population-based cohort in The Netherlands. The Child Behavior Checklist for toddlers containing the Anxious/Depressed syndrome scale was assessed at 36 months.

Non-HLA T-cell reactivity during the first year after HLA-identical living-related kidney transplantation.

Background: It has been reported that donor-reactive T-cell responses may decrease during the first year after HLA-mismatched organ transplantation. We wondered whether donor-reactive T-cell responses directed to minor histocompatibility antigens (mHAgs) or other non-HLA antigens also decrease after HLA-identical living-related (LR) kidney transplantation.

Methods: We studied donor-reactive T-cell responses by IFN-gamma and granzyme B (GrB) Elispot assays in 15 HLA-identical LR kidney transplant recipients before, six months and one yr after transplantation.

A multiplex bead array analysis to monitor donor-specific cytokine responses after withdrawal of immunosuppression in HLA-identical living related kidney transplant patients.

Immune reactivity after HLA-identical living related (LR) kidney transplantation can be caused by minor histocompatibility antigen and non-HLA antigen mismatches between donor and recipient. In our center, HLA-identical LR kidney transplant recipients receive azathioprine (AZA) or mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) in combination with corticosteroids for 1 year after transplantation. Thereafter, AZA or MMF was withdrawn, and the patients were treated with steroid monotherapy as maintenance therapy.

Peripheral blood manipulation significantly affects the result of dendritic cell monitoring.

It has been postulated that the plasmacytoid/myeloid dendritic cell ratio (pDC/mDC) reflects immune reactivity, and can therefore be used to monitor transplant recipients. We investigated the influence of Ficoll-Paque separation and PBMC cryopreservation on the pDC/mDC ratio and the expression of maturation markers, e.g.

Predictors of outcome of single-dose brachytherapy for the palliation of dysphagia from esophageal cancer.

Background: Single-dose brachytherapy is a commonly used palliative treatment modality for esophageal carcinoma, however, a considerable number of patients need additional treatment for persistent or recurrent dysphagia. Our aim was to establish predictors of an unfavorable outcome after single-dose brachytherapy.

Methods And Materials: Between December 1999 and July 2002, 95 patients with dysphagia from inoperable esophageal carcinoma were treated with single-dose (12 Gy) brachytherapy.

Denker operation is an effective surgical approach in managing juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma.

This article presents our experience with the various surgical approaches for angiofibroma and establishes the Denker procedure as an effective approach for removal of the tumor. The medical records of 29 patients treated between the years 1981 and 2001 were examined. The clinical extent of the tumor, the surgical approach, complications, and recurrences were evaluated.

Bilateral testicular microlithiasis predicts the presence of the precursor of testicular germ cell tumors in subfertile men.

Purpose: A high prevalence of testicular microlithiasis has been described in adolescent and adult clinical cases of invasive testicular germ cell tumor (TGCT), that is seminomas and nonseminomas. However, to our knowledge it remains to be established whether testicular microlithiasis also indicates the presence of the pre-invasive lesion of this cancer, known as carcinoma in situ (CIS). We determined the predictive value of unilateral and bilateral testicular microlithiasis for CIS in subfertile men, a known risk population for TGCTs (approximately 1%).