BACKGROUND Cardiovascular disease is the major cause of death in the end-stage renal disease population. Novel risk factors such as homocysteine (Hcy) are of considerable interest in this group as hyperhomocysteinaemia is highly prevalent in the setting of renal impairment. Folic acid-vitamin B group therapies are only partially effective treatments. Hcy is highly protein-bound and thus poorly ...

BACKGROUND Cross-talk between monocytes and platelets is reflected by the formation of monocyte-platelet aggregates (MPAs). It is not known whether MPAs are affected in heart failure (HF), and we examined differences in patients with acute HF (AHF), stable HF (SHF), stable coronary artery disease (CAD) without HF, and healthy controls (HCs). METHODS AND RESULTS MPAs were analyzed by flow cyto...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The prevalence and topography of small hypointense foci suggesting microbleeds on 3T SWI in various types of dementia have not been systematically investigated. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence and topography of SHF on 3T SWI in patients with different dementia subtypes. MATERIALS AND METHODS We included 347 consecutive patients (217 women, 130 ...

The Prdm1/Blimp1 protein acts as a transcriptional repressor by recruiting co-repressors leading to direct repression and indirect activation of gene expression. Prdm1 is dynamically expressed during development and, strikingly, has been shown to control specific differentiation programs in each of the different domains studied to date. During heart formation, Prdm1 is expressed in the second h...

BACKGROUND Defects in cardiac septation are the most common form of congenital heart disease, but the mechanisms underlying these defects are still poorly understood. The small GTPase Rac1 is implicated in planar cell polarity of epithelial cells in Drosophila; however, its role in mammalian cardiomyocyte polarity is not clear. We tested the hypothesis that Rac1 signaling in the second heart fi...

OBJECTIVES This study was designed to characterize the importance of echocardiographic indexes, including newer indexes of diastolic function, as determinants of plasma B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels in patients with systolic heart failure (SHF). BACKGROUND Plasma BNP levels have utility for diagnosing and managing heart failure. However, there is significant heterogeneity in BNP lev...

Within the self-consistent constraint Skyrme-Hartree-Fock+BCSmodel (SHF+BCS), we found equilibrium toroidal nuclear density distributions in the region of super-heavy elements. For nuclei with a sufficient oblate deformation (Q20 ≤ -200 b), it becomes energetically favourable to change the genus of nuclear surface from 0 to 1, i.e., to switch the shape from a biconcave disc to a torus. The ener...

Adult-born neurons adjust olfactory bulb (OB) network functioning in response to changing environmental conditions by the formation, retraction and/or stabilization of new synaptic contacts. While some changes in the odour environment are rapid, the synaptogenesis of adult-born neurons occurs over a longer time scale. It remains unknown how the bulbar network functions when rapid and persistent...

This study investigated the extent to which perceived physical and social-environment qualities of supported housing facilities (SHF) account for variations in the perceived quality of life of people with severe mental illness (SMI). Based on a user-centered approach, people with SMI (N 1⁄4 72) appraised the environment of their SHF (N 1⁄4 20). Moreover, it investigated whether place attachment...