BACKGROUND Blood pressure (BP) control is one of the most important treatments of Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD). The comparative efficacy of antihypertensive treatments in ADPKD patients is inconclusive. METHODS Network meta-analysis was used to evaluate randomized controlled trials (RCT) which investigated antihypertensive treatments in ADPKD. PubMed, Embase, Ovid, and...

Response to Letter Regarding Article, “Antihypertensive Drug Use, Blood Pressure Variability, and Stroke Risk in Older Adults: Three-City Cohort Study” We thank Nagai et al for their commentary on our blood pressure variability (BPV) study, which reported that β-blocker and angiotensin-II receptor blocker (ARB) use increased stroke risk, especially the ischemic stroke subtype. Our study did not...

BACKGROUND Previous studies have shown that a higher resistive index (RI) on renal duplex ultrasonography was related with renal progression and acute kidney injury, especially in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) using an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) or angiotensin receptor antagonist (ARB). We evaluated whether a RI value is a predictive factor for renal progression...

A growing number of human infections incriminate environmental bacteria that have evolved virulent mechanisms to resist amoebae and use them as a replicative niche. These bacteria are designated amoeba-resisting bacteria (ARB). Despite the isolation of these ARB in various human clinical samples, the possible source of infection remains undetermined in most cases. However, it is known that the ...

BACKGROUND Conflicting data exist regarding a potential deleterious association between aspirin (ASA) and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) when used concurrently in patients with heart failure (HF). How such an interaction may be influenced by underlying etiology of HF and whether it extends to patients treated with angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), however, are not known. ...

BACKGROUND Chinese and U.S. guidelines recommend angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs)/angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) for all patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in the absence of contraindications as either a Class I or Class IIa recommendation. Little is known about the use and trends of ACEI/ARB therapy in China over the past decade. METHODS AND RESULTS Using n...

OBJECTIVE Permeability of blood vessels is essential for tissue homeostasis. However, disorganized hyperpermeability leads to progression of diseases. Vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF) is a key regulator for leakiness of blood vessels and it has been reported that VEGF-mediated hyperpermeability was suppressed by angiopoietin-1 (Ang1). We found that Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE)...

A time-resolved immunofluorometric assay (IFMA) is described for quantifying the ovarian carcinoma-associated antigenic determinant CA 125 in human serum. Monoclonal antibody to CA 125 is immobilized onto a microtiter well, and the same antibody labeled with a europium chelate is used as a tracer. After the immunoreaction the bound portion of the labeled antibody is quantified by dissociating t...

BACKGROUND Progressive enlargement of the aortic root, leading to dissection, is the main cause of premature death in patients with Marfan's syndrome. Recent data from mouse models of Marfan's syndrome suggest that aortic-root enlargement is caused by excessive signaling by transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) that can be mitigated by treatment with TGF-beta antagonists, including angiote...

The main goal of this manuscript is to review different treatment strategies and mechanisms for combating the antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) in the wastewater environment. The high amount of antibiotics is released into the wastewater that may promote selection of ARB and ARGs which find their way into natural environments. Emerging microbial pathogens...