Demographic Characteristics of Participants in Rheumatoid Arthritis Randomized Clinical Trials: A Systematic Review.

Importance: Racial/ethnic minority groups, women, and elderly people experience a disproportionate burden of disease in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), making it particularly important to examine drug therapies in these populations. Despite a national health agenda to improve representation of diverse populations in randomized clinical trials (RCTs), there have been few large-scale analyses examining RCT demographic characteristics within rheumatology and none focusing on RA.

Objective: To characterize the representation of racial/ethnic minority groups, women, and elderly people through a comprehensive systematic review of RA RCTs.

Prevalence of diabetes and cardiovascular risk factors in middle-class urban participants in India.

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of diabetes and awareness, treatment and control of cardiovascular risk factors in population-based participants in India.

Methods: A study was conducted in 11 cities in different regions of India using cluster sampling. Participants were evaluated for demographic, biophysical, and biochemical risk factors.

ACR Appropriateness Criteria on colorectal cancer screening.

Colorectal cancer remains one of the most common causes of cancer death in this country. This malignancy is ideally suited for screening because the detection and removal of the precursor adenomatous polyp can prevent most colorectal cancers from ever forming. The choice of a test for screening involves consideration of various individual parameters, including patient age and the presence of risk factors for the development of colorectal cancer.

Vitamin D receptor, UVR, and skin cancer: a potential protective mechanism.

More than 1 million skin cancers occur annually in the United States--of which 80% are basal-cell carcinoma (BCC), 16% are squamous-cell carcinoma (SCC), and 4% are melanomas--making skin cancer by far the most common cancer (Greenlee et al., 2001). UVR is the major etiologic agent.

Leukocyte common-antigen-related tyrosine phosphatase receptor: altered expression of mRNA and protein in the New England Deaconess Hospital rat line exhibiting spontaneous pheochromocytoma.

Regulation of cell proliferation by protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) suggests that PTPs are important tumor suppressor genes. The gene encoding the leukocyte common-antigen-related (LAR) PTP receptor maps to chromosome 1p32-33, a region in which loss of heterozygosity is associated with human pheochromocytoma and other neuroectodermal tumors. The rat pheochromocytoma PC12 cell line was originally derived from the transplantable P259 tumor originating from the New England Deaconess Hospital (NEDH) line of Wistar inbred rats.

Leukocyte common antigen-related tyrosine phosphatase receptor: increased expression and neuronal-type splicing in breast cancer cells and tissue.

The findings that protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) regulate cell proliferation, response to growth factors, and cellular adhesion and the discovery that mutations in PTP genes are associated with breast cancer suggest that altered expression of PTPs contributes to the breast cancer cell phenotype. The leukocyte common antigen-related (LAR) PTP receptor is a prototype member of the class of PTP receptors containing cell adhesion domains. Full-length constitutively spliced LAR transcripts are expressed in breast and other tissues, whereas alternatively spliced isoforms are preferentially expressed in the nervous system.