Background: The role of inflammatory and hemodynamic stress biomarkers in heart failure (HF) patients treated de novo with beta-blockers has been poorly studied. Methods: A total of 86 patients (age 56 +/- 9 years, 81 men) with left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) < 40% and previously not treated with beta-blockers were initiated on carvedilol. At baseline and 12 months later we performed ech

Consumption of sugar has been relatively high in the Nordic countries; the impact of sugar intake on metabolic risk factors and related diseases has been debated. The objectives were to assess the effect of sugar intake (sugar-sweetened beverages, sucrose and fructose) on association with type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and related metabolic risk factors (impaired glucose tolerance, insuli

Aims/hypothesis We selected the most informative protein biomarkers for the prediction of incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) in people with type 2 diabetes. Methods In this nested case-control study we measured 42 candidate CVD biomarkers in 1,123 incident CVD cases and 1,187 controls with type 2 diabetes selected from five European centres. Combinations of biomarkers were selected using cross-

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: To date, the molecular function of most of the reported type 2 diabetes-associated loci remains unknown. The introduction or removal of cytosine-phosphate-guanine (CpG) dinucleotides, which are possible sites of DNA methylation, has been suggested as a potential mechanism through which single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) can affect gene function via epigenetics. The aim of this

P>1. Environmental changes may not always result in rapid changes in species distributions, abundances or diversity. In order to estimate the effects of, for example, land-use changes caused by agri-environment schemes (AES) on biodiversity and ecosystem services, information on the time-lag between the application of the scheme and the responses of organisms is essential. 2. We examined the effec

The COX2 rs5277 (306G>C) polymorphism has been associated with inflammation-associated cancers. In breast cancer, tumor COX-2 expression has been associated with increased estrogen levels in estrogen receptor (ER)-positive and activated Akt-pathway in ER-negative tumors. Our study investigated the impact of COX2 genotypes on early breast cancer events and treatment response in relation to tumor ER

Chronic hyperglycemia leads to pancreatic beta-cell dysfunction characterized by diminished glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS), but the precise cellular processes involved are largely unknown. Here we show that pancreatic beta-cells chronically exposed to a high glucose level displayed substantially increased amounts of stress fibers compared with beta-cells cultured at a low glucose leve

Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) has a well-documented positive effect on mortality and heart failure morbidity. The aim of this study was to assess the long-term survival and the predictive value of self-assessed functional status on the long-term prognosis of patients treated with CRT-pacemaker (CRT-P).METHODS AND RESULTS: Data were retrospectively collected from medical records of 446 co

Genetic case-control association studies often include data on clinical covariates, such as body mass index (BMI), smoking status, or age, that may modify the underlying genetic risk of case or control samples. For example, in type 2 diabetes, odds ratios for established variants estimated from low-BMI cases are larger than those estimated from high-BMI cases. An unanswered question is how to use

OBJECTIVE-Proinsulin is a precursor of mature insulin and C-peptide. Higher circulating proinsulin levels are associated with impaired beta-cell function, raised glucose levels, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes (T2D). Studies of the insulin processing pathway could provide new insights about T2D pathophysiology. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS-We have conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide as

The purpose of this study is to describe how the energy efficiency and greenhouse gas (GHG) benefits of ethanol depend on local conditions and calculation methods. The following four parameters have been identified as crucial to the GHG benefits of ethanol: (i) energy efficiency and emissions of nitrous oxide during cultivation, (ii) what kind of fuel is used in ethanol plants, (iii) how efficient

Objective: To investigate (i) the performance and agreement between various activity indices and response criteria in TNF-blockade of RA; (ii) the predictive ability of different response criteria and disease activity states regarding continuation of anti-TNF treatment of RA; (iii) Euro-QoL-5-dimensions utility development during TNF blockade of RA, PsA and SpA. Also, (iv) to develop a simple, uti

Background: Dental caries is unevenly distributed within populations with a higher burden in low socio-economy groups. Several attempts have been made to allocate resources to those that need them the most; there is a need for convenient approaches to population-based monitoring of caries risk over time. The aim of this study was to develop the geo-map concept, addressing time trends in caries ris