BACKGROUND Inflammation plays an important role in the pathophysiology of both atherosclerosis and type 2 diabetes and some inflammatory markers may also predict the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The aims of the present study were to assess a potential association between circulating levels of inflammatory markers and hyperglycaemia measured during an acute ST-elevation myocardial infarct...

BACKGROUND In anticipation of applying Appropriate Use Criteria for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) quality improvement, we determined the prevalence of appropriate, uncertain, and inappropriate PCIs stratified by indication for all PCIs performed in the state of Washington. METHODS AND RESULTS Within the Clinical Outcomes Assessment Program, we assigned appropriateness ratings to al...

UNLABELLED Coronary angiography is the "gold standard" for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD). The aim of this work was to compare 201Thallium SPECT with different coronary angiographic cutoff values. METHODS Data pertaining to 145 patients were tabulated. All patients underwent stress ECG, 201Thallium SPECT and coronary angiography. To assess the cutoff impact, two criteria for c...

BACKGROUND Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) levels are used to evaluate the ovarian reserve. AMH serum concentrations have recently been studied among women attending fertility centers, and among women with regular menstrual cycles but normative values have not been established among fertile women: the objective of this study was to establish those values. METHODS This prospective cross-sectional...

BACKGROUND A reduced mouth opening capacity may be one of the first clinical signs of pathological changes in the masticatory system. The aim of this retrospective cross-sectional study was to create age related percentiles for unassisted maximal mouth opening capacity (MOC) of healthy children. METHODS All recordings of MOC as measured at the yearly dental examinations of school children in ...

PURPOSE We aimed to evaluate the nutritional status of children with early onset scoliosis (EOS) and to determine if treatment with growing rod instrumentation improves weight percentile. METHODS Data was retrospectively collected on 88 EOS patients treated with growing rods at six institutions. Mean age at surgery was 5.8 years, and mean Cobb angle was 75°. All patients were followed for at ...

Patients with Marfan syndrome (MFS) presents with primary skeletal manifestations such as tall stature, chest wall abnormality, and scoliosis. These primary skeletal manifestations affect the growth pattern in MFS. Therefore, it is not appropriate to use normal growth charts to evaluate the growth status of MFS. We aimed to develop disease-specific growth charts for Korean MFS patients and to u...

We have previously demonstrated that awareness of high blood pressure may increase blood pressure, plasma catecholamine levels, and stress responses. In the present study, three groups of 19-year-old men, all unaware of their blood pressure status, were selected from the first (group-1, 62 +/- 2 mm Hg, [mean +/- SEM], n = 15), 50th (group-50, 90 +/- 4 mm Hg, n = 15), and 99th (group-99, 123 +/-...