Objective: This study aimed to explore the relation between bone mineral density (BMD), inflammation, coronary risk factors, and Insulin growth factor (IGF) in frail elderly. Design: A casecontrol study. Setting: Ain Shams University Hospital Cairo, Egypt. Participants: Ninety aged 60 years and above; sixty frail (30 males and 30 females; mean age 70.03 ± 8.10) and thirty matched controls (15 m...

This case-control study examined whether DNA aneuploidy in colorectal adenomas is a risk factor for subsequent ademona recurrence. Cases (recurrent polyp formers) were defined as persons with diagnoses of new adenomas at 2 colonoscopies following the index (first) adenoma diagnosis; controls were persons with no new adenomas at a follow-up at least 1 year after the index diagnosis. Cases (n = 2...

Objective: To explore the expression of CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cell (Treg) and Foxp3 in peripheral blood of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and its clinical significance by performing a casecontrol study. Methods: Eighty-two COPD patients treated in our hospital from Jan 2013 to Jun 2014 were enrolled as case group and 76 healthy individuals as control group. All the ...

The scientific debate on oral contraceptives (OCs) therapy and thrombotic diseases continues unabated. This retrospective casecontrol study was intended to evaluate the age specific effects of oral contraceptives and smoking on the risk of deep venous thrombosis, pulmonary thromboembolism and arterial thombosis in women under 50 years. The study included evaluation of registry records of Bulgar...

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multisystemic autoimmune disease characterized by the production of a wide range of autoantibodies, resulting in tissue damage. Although the susceptibility to SLE has been attributed to complex interactions between genetic and environmental factors, the influence of a genetic predisposition to SLE is supported by observations of familial aggregations. Fam...

The role of mannose-binding lectin (MBL) deficiency (MBL2 XA/O + O/O genotypes) in host defences remains controversial. The surfactant proteins (SP)-A1, -A2 and -D, another collectins whose genes are located near MBL2, are part of the first-line lung defence against infection. We analyzed the role of MBL on susceptibility to pneumococcal infection and the existence of linkage disequilibrium (LD...

Background: Since genetic variations in X-ray cross-complementing group 4 (XRCC4; OMIM: 194363) repair gene might be associated with a reduction in cellular DNA repair capacity, it is hypothesized that XRCC4 Ins/Del (I/D) polymorphism (in intron 3 of the gene; rs28360071) may be a risk factor for breast cancer. Therefore, the present casecontrol study was carried out. Methods: The present case-...

©FSRH J Fam Plann Reprod Health Care 2009: 35(1) Introduction The relationship between male circumcision and genital human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and cervical cancer has been greatly clarified in recent years. Along with the strong evidence from both observational studies and three randomised clinical trials (RCTs) consistently showing that male circumcision reduces the risk of HIV infe...

Background Though vascular factors may be important in the aetiology of late-life depression, it is not clear whether they have a major effect on the risk of depression after a stroke. We investigated the relationship between physiological, biochemical, neuro-imaging and socio-economic factors and late-phase post-stroke depression in a cross-sectional casecontrol study. Methods People living at...

This paper discusses factors that may contribute to the participant's sense of presence in immersive virtual environments. We distinguish between external factors, that is those wholly determined by the hardware and software technology employed to generate the environment, and subjective factors, that is how sensory inputs to the human participant are processed internally. The therapeutic techn...