Is albuminuria a myocardial infarction risk equivalent for atherothrombotic events?

Objective: People with chronic kidney disease frequently experience cardiovascular events. This study sought to investigate whether the presence of albuminuria displays a vascular risk equivalent to that in patients with prior myocardial infarction.

Methods: Albuminuria was defined as a urinary albumin to creatinine ratio of 30 μg/mg or greater in 852 consecutive patients undergoing coronary angiography.

Systemic inflammation is higher in peripheral artery disease than in stable coronary artery disease.

Objective: The knowledge on the level of systemic inflammation in peripheral artery disease (PAD) is less well established than that in coronary artery disease (CAD). Systemic inflammation frequently coincides with atherosclerosis, but also with various traits of the metabolic syndrome (MetS). The individual contribution of CAD, PAD, and the MetS to inflammation is not known.

Genome-wide association study reveals a polymorphism in the podocyte receptor RANK for the decline of renal function in coronary patients.

Impaired kidney function is a significant health problem and a major concern in clinical routine and is routinely determined by decreased glomerular filtration rate (GFR). In contrast to single assessment of a patients' kidney function providing only limited information on patients' health, serial measurements of GFR clearly improves the validity of diagnosis. The decline of kidney function has recently been reported to be predictive for mortality and vascular events in coronary patients.

Angiopoietin-like protein 4 significantly predicts future cardiovascular events in coronary patients.

Background: Angiopoietin-like protein 4 (ANGPTL4) has been associated with cardiometabolic disorders including dyslipidemia and atherosclerosis in animal studies; in humans, however, its impact on metabolic traits and cardiovascular risk remains unclear.

Methods: We examined the association of plasma ANGPTL4 levels with the metabolic syndrome (harmonized consensus definition), with angiographically determined coronary artery disease (CAD), and with the risk of future cardiovascular events in a cohort of 490 patients undergoing coronary angiography for the evaluation of stable CAD. In addition, we investigated the influence of the tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) rs4076317, rs2278236, rs1044250, and rs11672433 as well as variant rs116843064 (E40K) of the ANGPTL4 gene on cardiovascular risk in a larger sample of 983 angiographied coronary patients including the above mentioned 490 subjects.

Accurate quantitation of JAK2 V617F allele burden by array-based digital PCR.

Introduction: The JAK2 V617F mutation is highly prevalent in patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN). Several studies have shown that allele burden correlates with hematologic characteristics and clinical end-points in patients with MPN. Allele-specific real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RQ-PCR) is probably the most commonly used technique for detection and quantitation of the JAK2 V617F mutation.

Significant survival impact of MACC1 polymorphisms in HER2 positive breast cancer patients.

Background: Deregulation of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)/mesenchymal-epithelial transition factor (MET) signalling has been associated with poor clinical outcome in breast cancer and other cancers. The recently discovered metastasis-associated in colon cancer-1 (MACC1) gene is a key regulator of the HGF/MET pathway. Potential links between genetic variants of the MACC1 gene and survival in breast cancer patients are unknown.

Hypoxia induces a HIF-1α dependent signaling cascade to make a complex metabolic switch in SGBS-adipocytes.

To elucidate the complex impact of hypoxia on adipose tissue, resulting in biased metabolism, insulin resistance and finally diabetes we used mature adipocytes derived from a Simpson-Golabi-Behmel syndrome patient for microarray analysis. We found a significantly increased transcription rate of genes involved in glycolysis and a striking association between the pattern of upregulated genes and disease biomarkers for diabetes mellitus and insulin resistance. Although their upregulation turned out to be HIF-1α-dependent, we identified further transcription factors mainly AP-1 components to play also an important role in hypoxia response.

Evaluation of the prevalence and prospective clinical impact of the JAK2 V617F mutation in coronary patients.

The JAK2 V617F mutation is not only found in the majority of patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN), including essential thrombocythemia (ET), but also has been reported in individuals without overt MPN. A close relation of the JAK2 V617F mutation to atherothrombotic events has been described, at least in patients with MPN. The prevalence of the JAK2 V617F mutation and its clinical impact in coronary patients is unknown.

Usefulness of serial decline of kidney function to predict mortality and cardiovascular events in patients undergoing coronary angiography.

Chronic kidney disease increases cardiovascular risk and all-cause mortality. However, data on the predictive power of dynamic changes in kidney function are sparse. The aim of this research was to assess the predictive power of serial changes in kidney function on mortality and cardiovascular risk.

The effects of an 8-week multicomponent inpatient treatment program on body composition and anaerobic fitness in overweight and obese children and adolescents.

Background: High intensity exercise is considered as an effective means for reducing body fat. The aims of the present study were to investigate (1) whether body mass would be lost and body composition would change and (2) whether variables of anaerobic fitness prior to the intervention period would be related to loss of body mass and changes in body composition in overweight and obese children and adolescents.

Methods: A total of 28 children and adolescents (19 boys, 9 girls) attended an 8-week multicomponent inpatient program.

Serial decline of kidney function as a novel biomarker for the progression of atherothrombotic disease.

Objective: Impaired kidney function is associated with cardiovascular disease. However, from the available data it cannot be discerned which of the two entities presents first and entails the other. If renal dysfunction is first, a dynamic decline in the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) should predict vascular events and prove a useful biomarker for atherothrombotic disease.