BACKGROUND Iron accumulation as seen in genetic haemochromatosis is a major cause of hepatic fibrogenesis. A link between chronic liver disease and Dupuytren's disease (DD) is well established, especially in alcoholics. AIM The aim of the present study was to test the hypothesis that iron accumulation might cause fibrosis of the palmar aponeurosis leading to DD. PATIENTS AND METHODS We exam...

BACKGROUND The incidence of diastolic dysfunction (DD) approaches 40% in patients with cirrhosis. However, the clinical impact of DD remains a subject of considerable debate. Surgery in patients with cirrhosis is innately hazardous. Diastolic heart failure has been linked to increased mortality after transjugular intrahepatic porto-systemic shunt surgery (TIPSS). To date, none of the commonly a...

BACKGROUND Platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) is a central mediator of mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis (GN). In experimental mesangioproliferative GN, PDGF-DD serum levels, unlike PDGF-BB, increased up to 1000-fold. METHODS We assessed disease activity in 72 patients with GN, established a novel PDGF-D ELISA and then determined their PDGF-DD levels. In parallel, we studied renal P...

This study sought to examine layer-specific longitudinal and circumferential systolic and diastolic strain, strain rate (SR) and diastolic time intervals in hypertensive patients with and without diastolic dysfunction. Fifty-eight treated hypertensive patients were assigned to normal diastolic function (NDF, N = 39) or mild diastolic dysfunction (DD, N = 19) group. Layer-specific systolic and d...

The Death Domain (DD) superfamily, which is one of the largest classes of protein interaction modules, plays a pivotal role in apoptosis, inflammation, necrosis and immune cell signaling pathways. Because aberrant or inappropriate DD superfamily-mediated signaling events are associated with various human diseases, such as cancers, neurodegenerative diseases and immunological disorders, the stud...

In this paper, distance driven (DD) backprojection image reconstruction was investigated for digital tomosysthesis. Digital tomosysthesis is an imaging technique to produce three dimensional information of the object with low radiation dosage. This paper is a new study of DD backprojection for image reconstruction in digital tomosysthesis. Since DD considers that the image pixel and detector ce...

The aim of the present research was to evaluate disk displacements (DDs) of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) among patients referred for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, and analyze the type and prevalence of DD, gender, age, side distribution, reciprocal clicking, presence of pain, range of mouth opening movement, and dental condition. The sample comprised 113 patients, 12-78 years old...

Dd-STATa is a structural and functional homologue of the metazoan STAT (Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription) proteins. We show that Dd-STATa null cells exhibit several distinct developmental phenotypes. The aggregation of Dd-STATa null cells is delayed and they chemotax slowly to a cyclic AMP source, suggesting a role for Dd-STATa in these early processes. In Dd-STATa null strains,...

essential hypertension (eh) accounts for 90-95% of hypertension cases. eh, as a progressive cardiovascular syndrome arising from complex and interrelated etiologies, results from combined and interactive effects of genetic and environmental factors. the objective was to investigate the ace i/d and gnb3 c825t polymorphisms and both genotypes combined with seeking gene-gene interactions to furthe...

Presence of cardiac dysfunction has been associated with an unfavorable prognosis in patients with liver cirrhosis. In the present study, 92 consecutive, newly-diagnosed patients with liver cirrhosis were prospectively evaluated. Liver disease was graded according to the modified Child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP) score whereas left ventricular diastolic function was assessed by Doppler-echocardiography...