although protein-calorie malnutrition is common among the hemodialysis patients and is associated with increased rates of morbidity and mortality, assessment of nutritional status of these patients is frequently ignored in many dialysis centers. malnutrition can be estimated using a semiquantitative scale, subjective global assessment (sga) but subjective nature of this scale restricts its reli...

OBJECTIVE Interferon (IFN) regulatory factors (IRF) are transcriptional mediators of IFN-induced signaling pathways and are involved in immune response. We have analyzed for the first time the association of 2 IRF5 gene variants in the susceptibility to giant cell arteritis (GCA). METHODS Two hundred twenty patients with biopsy-proven GCA and 520 matched controls were assessed. DNA from patie...

Giant-cell arteritis (GCA) is a visually devastating disease that often progresses to severe bilateral vision loss if untreated. Diagnosis of GCA is made challenging by the protean nature of the disease and the lack of a simple test that is both highly sensitive and specific. Choroidal filling delay on fluorescein angiography (FA) has been touted as a highly characteristic feature of GCA-relate...

BACKGROUND Thousands of people in central Asia die every year from gastric cardia adenocarcinoma (GCA). GCA arises in the transformation zone between the esophagus and the stomach, similar to cervical and oropharyngeal carcinoma, which arise in areas with transformation zone characteristics. The analogous biology of the gastric cardia to the cervix and oropharynx, where human papillomavirus (HP...

Glycosylation affects malignancy in cancer. Here, we report that N- acetylgalactosaminyltransferase 2 (GALNT2), an enzyme that mediates the initial step of mucin type-O glycosylation, suppresses malignant phenotypes in gastric adenocarcinoma (GCA) by modifying MET (Hepatocyte growth factor receptor) activity. GALNT2 mRNA and protein were downregulated in GCAs, and this reduction was associated ...

The piglet was investigated as a potential model for studying brain and cognitive deficits associated with being born small for gestational age (SGA). Naturally farrowed SGA (0.7-1.0 kg BW) and average for gestational age (AGA, 1.3-1.6 kg BW) piglets were obtained on postnatal day (PD) 2, placed in individual cages, and provided a nutritionally adequate milk replacer diet (285 ml/kg/d). Beginni...

BACKGROUND Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is a systemic vasculitis of elderly individuals associated with significant morbidity, including blindness, stroke, and myocardial infarction. Previous studies have investigated whether GCA is associated with increased mortality, with conflicting results. The objective of this study is to determine whether GCA, is associated with increased mortality. METH...

OBJECTIVE To examine potential associations of the Glu/Asp(298) polymorphism in exon 7 and the 4a/b polymorphism in intron 4 of the endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) gene with susceptibility to and clinical expression of giant cell arteritis (GCA), particularly in patients with versus those without ischemic complications. METHODS Ninety-one consecutive patients with biopsy-proven GCA, ...

Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is a systemic vasculitis of medium and large arteries that mainly affects the external carotid artery. It is a diagnosis of the elderly that typically presents as low-grade fever, temporal tenderness, claudication of the jaw, and in some patients vision loss. In cases where GCA presents with atypical manifestations, the diagnosis may be more difficult, causing a delay...