The hematological reference values are very important for diagnostic orientation and treatment decision. The aim of this study was to establish hematological reference values for healthy adults in Togo. A total of 2571 voluntary blood donors participated to this study. Only 1349 subjects negative for HIV, HBV, HCV, malaria, and without hemoglobin abnormalities in electrophoresis and hypochromia...

BACKGROUND An alternative method of estimating children's weights, when direct weighing is impracticable is the use of age-based formulae but these formulae have not been validated in Nigeria. This study compares estimated weights from two commonly used formulae against actual weights of healthy children. METHODS Children aged 1 month to 11 years (n= 2754) were randomly selected in Ibadan, Ni...

Wisconsin Schizotypy Scales are one of the most used measuring instruments for the assessment of psychometric risk for psychosis. The main goal of the present study was to analyze the internal structure of the Wisconsin Schizotypy Scales-Brief (WSS-B) forms and the reliability of the scores in a large sample of college students. The final sample was comprised by a total of 1349 students, 288 ma...

The ERD2 gene, which encodes the yeast HDEL (His-Asp-Glu-Leu) receptor, is essential for growth (Semenza, J. C., K. G. Hardwick, N. Dean, and H. R. B. Pelham. 1990. Cell. 61:1349-1357; Lewis, M. J., D. J. Sweet, and H. R. B. Pelham. 1990. Cell. 61:1359-1363). SED5, when present in multiple copies, enables cells to grow in the absence of Erd2p. Sequence analysis of SED5 reveals no significant ho...

BACKGROUND An ambitious pay-for-performance system was implemented in UK general practice in 2004 amid doubts that it could improve both the working lives of doctors and quality of care. AIM To evaluate doctors' perceptions of their working lives and quality of care before and after the new contract. DESIGN OF STUDY Longitudinal questionnaire survey. SETTING England, UK. METHOD A longit...

Direct-phi perception elicited by a reverse-phi (i.e. reversed-polarity) stimulus may well be accounted for, if the front-end filters of a classical Reichardt unit are full-wave rectifiers. It is shown that reverse-phi perception is progressively replaced by direct-phi perception when either the spatial or the temporal modulation of the reversed-polarity stimuli are decreased. Reverse-phi perce...

BACKGROUND Increasing serum levels of uric acid (SUA) after menopause in women brought up a hypothesis that estrogenic effect may protectively regulate SUA. Estrogenic effect is a major etiology of uterine fibroids and fibrocystic breast disease. The study aimed to explore SUA among patients suffering from these diseases to enhance the hypothesis. METHODS Overall, 1349 female participants wer...

Complement alternative pathway plays an important, but not clearly understood, role in neutrophil-mediated diseases. We here show that neutrophils themselves activate complement when stimulated by cytokines or coagulation-derived factors. In whole blood, tumor necrosis factor/ formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine or phorbol myristate acetate resulted in C3 fragments binding on neutrophils and ...

This report provides a summary of the 2013 Slovenian renal replacement therapy (RRT) data, obtained from 24 renal centers: 23 dialysis and one transplant center, referring from 31 December 2013, with 100% response rate to individual patient questionnaires. Slovenia had a population of 2 061 085 on 1 January 2014. The total number of patients treated by RRT was 2077, i.e. 1008.3 per million of p...

BACKGROUND A possible association between asthma and cardiovascular disease has been described in several exploratory studies. METHODS The association of self-reported, doctor diagnosed asthma and incident cardiovascular disease was examined in a biracial cohort of 45-64 year old adults (N = 13501) followed over 14 years. RESULTS Compared with never having asthma, the multivariate adjusted ...