Aetiology remains the main unanswered problem in Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN) despite investigations into the roles of genetic factors, environmental agents and immune mechanisms. Evidence has accumulated that BEN is an environmentally-induced disease. Weathering of low-rank coals near to the villages where BEN is endemic produces water-soluble polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and aromatic ...

Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a mycotoxin naturally occurring in different foods. OTA is arguably a risk factor for Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN). The aims of this study are to (1) test the OTA-BEN association in BEN-groups and controls and (2) determine whether urine β2-microglobulin, a marker of impaired ability of the kidneys to re-absorb, is related to OTA. BEN patients had significantly higher ...

Brain entropy (BEN) mapping provides a novel approach to characterize brain temporal dynamics, a key feature of human brain. Using resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI), reliable and spatially distributed BEN patterns have been identified in normal brain, suggesting a potential use in clinical populations since temporal brain dynamics and entropy may be altered in disease...

Hamdi Boubaker MD1,8, Mohamed Habib Grissa MD1,8, Mouna Sassi MD2,8, Taher Chakroun MD3, Kaouthar Beltaief MD1,8, Mohsen Hassine MD4,8, Grigoris T Gerotziafas MD5, Rabie Razgallah MD6, Wahid Bouida MD1,8, Riadh Boukef MD7,8, Ismail Elalamy MD5 and Semir Nouira MD1,8* 1Emergency Department, Fattouma Bourguiba University Hospital, Monasitr 5000, Tunisia 2Biological Laboratory, Maternity and Neona...

There is an very old opinion that we diagnose only most prominent BEN cases and miss latent and mild ones, that unrecognized BEN is possible in endemic villages and the number of such cases, their characteristics, and origin are unknown. From 1955 to 1998 year we evaluated 1235 patients with histologicaly proven upper urothelial tumors, who underwent surgery. The diagnosis of sporadic BEN, was ...

Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN) is a disease that affects people that live in the alluvial plains along the tributaries of the Danube River in the Balkan region. BEN is a chronic tubulointerstitial disease with a slow progression to terminal renal failure and has strong association with upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC). There are several hypotheses about the etiology of BEN, but only th...

This will contain my notes on Iwasawa-Tate theory. This will be done first for number fields and simple algebras (a la Weil), giving some number theoretic results. The meat of these notes is a study of the Standard L-functions for GL(n). We extend this to arbitary simple algebras (a la Godement/Jacquet). This is a long term project. As of now, I have basically completed the first case. There ar...

The prevalence of the disease was stable over many years, but now appears to decline in most affected settlements w1x. Some authors also suggest that the incidence of BEN decreases w1,2x and that it appears to be tapering off; others, however, describe a stable incidence of BEN w3x. The question arises on different epidemiological characteristics of the disease in different endemic regions. In ...

The aim of this study is to evaluate epidemiological status of Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN) patients on renal replacement therapy (RRT) in Bosnia from 2003 through 2005. Incidence and prevalence rates of BEN, diabetes mellitus (DM) and RRT population and proportion of BEN RRT population in total RRT population were tracked in renal units covering the entire BEN endemic region in Bosnia. BEN...