BACKGROUND No well-defined protocols currently exist regarding the optimal rate and duration of normal saline administration to prevent contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI) in patients with renal insufficiency. METHODS AND RESULTS Hydration volume ratios (hydration volume/weight; HV/W) were calculated in 1406 patients with renal insufficiency (estimated glomerular filtration rate [eG...

OBJECTIVES We sought to evaluate the significance of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) in the context of low low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). BACKGROUND Earlier studies support an inverse correlation between circulating HDL-C and coronary risk in patients with normal or elevated LDL-C. METHODS This study involved 4,188 patients attending the Palo Alto Veterans Adminis...

Obesity is a major risk factor for endometrial cancer, a relationship thought to be largely explained by the prevalence of high estrogen levels in obese women. Obesity is also associated with high levels of insulin, a known mitogen. However, no prospective studies have directly assessed whether insulin and/or insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), a related hormone, are associated with endometri...

BACKGROUND Nearly 17% of patients are readmitted within 30 days of discharge after transcatheter aortic valve replacement. Selected patients are discharged to skilled nursing facilities, yet the association between a hospital's practice to discharge home versus to skilled nursing facilities, and readmission remains unclear. METHODS AND RESULTS The Society of Thoracic Surgeons/American College...

OBJECTIVE Ageing is associated with frailty and decreased anabolic hormones, insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) and testosterone. We hypothesized that components of the IGF-I system, in conjunction with testosterone, modulate frailty risk in the elderly. We examined associations between IGF-I, its binding proteins IGFBP1 and IGFBP3 and testosterone with frailty in men. DESIGN Observational ...

Inconsistent results for the role of dairy food intake in relation to ovarian cancer risk may reflect the potential adverse effects of lactose, which has been hypothesized to increase gonadotropin levels, and the beneficial antiproliferative effects of calcium and vitamin D. Using data from the New England case-control study (1,909 cases and 1,989 controls), we examined dairy foods and nutrient...

In this paper we study the Diophantine equation x4−q4 = py, with the following conditions: p and q are prime distincts natural numbers, x is not divisible with p, p ≡ 11 (mod12), q ≡ 1 (mod3), p is a generator of the group ( Zq , · ) , 2 is a cubic residue mod q.

OBJECTIVE Angiopoietin-like protein 2 (ANGPTL2), a proinflammatory mediator, has been reported to accelerate the development of insulin resistance, endothelial dysfunction, and atherosclerosis in mice. However, no cohort studies have examined the relationship between serum ANGPTL2 levels and the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in a general population. APPROACH AND RESULTS A total ...

Although racial disparity is well described for oncologic outcomes, factors associated with survival within racial groups remains unexplored. The objective of this study is to determine whether breast cancer survival among White or Black patients is associated with differing patient factors. Women diagnosed with breast cancer from 1998 through 2012 were identified in the Surveillance, Epidemiol...

The tumor level of TIMP-1 has been suggested as a new prognostic marker in breast cancer. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether TIMP-1 also carries prognostic information when measured in blood as this is a much more preferable material compared with tumor extracts. Using ELISA, TIMP-1 was measured in prospectively collected preoperative plasma and serum samples from 519 patients...