Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin as a diagnostic marker of acute kidney injury in pre-eclampsia.

Aim: Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) is an emerging biomarker for early diagnosis of acute kidney injury (AKI). This study investigated the use of urinary NGAL as a marker of AKI in women with pre-eclampsia.

Methods: Urine and serum samples were collected over 24 h from 78 healthy and 109 pre-eclamptic women, with baseline samples taken at admission to the maternity unit; NGAL was assayed in serial urine samples.

Long-term safety and efficacy of recombinant factor VIII Fc fusion protein (rFVIIIFc) in subjects with haemophilia A.

Introduction: The safety, efficacy and prolonged half-life of recombinant factor VIII Fc fusion protein (rFVIIIFc) in previously treated patients with severe haemophilia A was demonstrated in the phase 3 A-LONG and Kids A-LONG studies. Here, we report interim safety and efficacy data from the rFVIIIFc extension study, ASPIRE (ClinicalTrials.gov #NCT01454739).

Recombinant factor VIII Fc fusion protein for the prevention and treatment of bleeding in children with severe hemophilia A.

Background: Prophylactic factor replacement, which prevents hemarthroses and thereby reduces the musculoskeletal disease burden in children with hemophilia A, requires frequent intravenous infusions (three to four times weekly).

Objective: Kids A-LONG was a phase 3 open-label study evaluating the safety, efficacy and pharmacokinetics of a longer-acting factor, recombinant factor VIII Fc fusion protein (rFVIIIFc), in previously treated children with severe hemophilia A (endogenous FVIII level of < 1 IU dL(-1) [< 1%]).

Methods: The study enrolled 71 subjects.

Reproducibility and levels of blood lactate transition thresholds in persons with metabolic syndrome.

Background: The optimal exercise load/intensity for exercise programs for individuals with metabolic syndrome has not been investigated. One method of determining optimal exercise load is to measure the blood lactate transition threshold (BLTT), referred to as the anaerobic threshold (AT). This study investigated the reproducibility of BLTT testing and the consequent determination of AT via the Mader method and a modified form of the Automatic Data Analysis for Progressive Tests (ADAPT) method in patients with metabolic syndrome.

The current waist circumference cut point used for the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome in sub-Saharan African women is not appropriate.

The waist circumference cut point for diagnosing the metabolic syndrome in sub-Saharan African subjects is based on that obtained from studies in European populations. The aim of this study was to measure the prevalence of obesity and related metabolic disorders in an urban population of African females, a group at high risk for such diseases, and to determine the appropriate waist cut point for diagnosing the metabolic syndrome. Anthropometry and fasting lipid, glucose and insulin levels were measured in a cohort of 1251 African females participating in the Birth to Twenty cohort study in Soweto, Johannesburg.

Contribution of central and general adiposity to abnormal left ventricular diastolic function in a community sample with a high prevalence of obesity.

The relative independent contribution of excess adiposity, as indexed by measures of central, general, or peripheral adiposity, toward abnormal cardiac diastolic chamber function at a community level is unclear. In 377 randomly selected participants >16 years old from a community sample with a high prevalence of excess adiposity ( approximately 25% overweight and approximately 43% obese), we assessed the independent contribution of the indexes of adiposity to the variation in early-to-late (atrial) transmitral velocity (E/A). After adjustments for a number of confounders, including age, gender, pulse rate, conventional diastolic (or systolic) blood pressure, antihypertensive treatment, left ventricular mass index, and the presence of diabetes mellitus or a hemoglobin A1c level >6.

Metabolic response to a mixed meal in obese and lean women from two South african populations.

Objective: Lower lipid and insulin levels are found during a glucose-tolerance test in obese black than obese white South African women. Therefore, beta-cell function and lipid metabolism were compared in these populations during a mixed meal.

Research Methods And Procedures: Blood concentrations of glucose, free fatty acids (FFAs), insulin, lipograms, and in vivo FFA oxidation were determined at fasting and for 7 hours after oral administration of a mixed emulsion containing glucose-casein-sucrose-lipid and [1-(13)C] palmitic acid in 8 lean black women (LBW), 10 obese black women (OBW), 9 lean white women (LWW), and 10 obese white women (OWW).

Weight-related differences in glucose metabolism and free fatty acid production in two South African population groups.

Objective: The effects of free fatty acids (FFA), leptin, tumour necrosis factor (TNF) alpha and body fat distribution on in vivo oxidation of a glucose load were studied in two South African ethnic groups.

Design And Measurements: Anthropometric and various metabolic indices were measured at fasting and during a 7 h oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). Body composition was measured using bioelectrical impedance analysis and subcutaneous and visceral fat mass was assessed using a five- and two-level CT-scan respectively.

Relation between weight gain and beta-cell secretory activity and non-esterified fatty acid production in 7-year-old African children: results from the Birth to Ten study.

Aims/hypothesis: This study aimed to assess the effects of fetal and childhood growth on beta-cell activity and insulin sensitivity in 7-year-old children.

Methods: Insulin, des-31,32 proinsulin, proinsulin, non-esterified fatty acids and glucose concentrations were measured in oral glucose tolerance tests in 152 South African children for whom longitudinal weight data was available.

Results: Children with low weights at birth and 7 years (low-low) had relatively low beta-cell activity whereas children with low birth weight and high weight at 7 years (low-high) had relatively high beta-cell activity.

The absence of a triphasic renovascular response by the multicalyceal kidney of the primate in reaction to acute, complete, unilateral, ureteric obstruction.

The early renovascular response by the ipsilateral kidney to acute, total, unilateral, ureteric obstruction was investigated in the adult male chacma baboon (Papio ursinus). Complete occlusion was effected by ligating the ureter at the brim of the bony pelvis ("N"=10). Sham studies were enacted using the same method but the ureter was not obstructed ("N"=11).

A method for creating reversible ureteric obstruction in the primate.

A technique has been developed for the establishment of a state of reversible, ureteric obstruction in the primate. Ten adult males had baseline 99mTc-DTPA renogram studies. A randomly selected ureter was totally occluded and obstruction confirmed on renogram.