Gender differences in acute care treatments for cardiovascular diseases.

BACKGROUND: This narrative review aimed to identify gender-related differences in multiple cardiovascular disease treatments and to provide an overview of the possible causes to aid in establishment of a cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk profile. METHODS: A narrative review methodology was used. A systematic search of two databases, PubMed and CINAHL, sourced 245 articles. RESULTS: Seven articles met the inclusion criteria. Three recurrent themes emerged from the literature. These were gender differences in the burden of CVD, gender differences in symptom presentation and gender differences in management and treatment of CVD. CONCLUSION: CVD can be expressed differently in women and men. Different approaches to diagnosis and treatment are required. The studies included in this review reflect findings reported in research conducted more than 10 years ago, suggesting that more focus is needed to define and add gender-related indicators to current risk assessments and management strategies.

RelAte: pilot study of the effects of a mealtime intervention on social cognitive factors and energy intake among older adults living alone.

Mealtime interventions typically focus on institutionalised older adults, but we wanted to investigate whether they may also be effective among those living independently. Using a randomised controlled trial design, we assessed the effects of a novel mealtime intervention on self-efficacy, food enjoyment and energy intake. A total of 100 adults living alone aged over 60 years were randomised to the treatment or control conditions: all received a guidebook on nutrition and culinary skills. Treatment group participants received a weekly visit from a trained volunteer who prepared and shared a meal with them. Participants in the treatment group showed improvements relative to those in the control group at borderline significance (P=0·054) for self-efficacy and at significance for food enjoyment. Significant improvements were observed in female participants in the treatment but not in the control group in energy intake (although following corrections for multiple comparisons, only the effect on food enjoyment remained significant). These findings will inform the design of future complex interventions. For this type of intervention to be successful, more focus has to be placed on making interventions more personalised, potentially according to sex. Findings are important for nutritional sciences as they indicate that, in order to improve energy intake and food enjoyment among older adults, multimodal nutritional interventions including social components may be successful.

The APSES transcription factor Efg1 is a global regulator that controls morphogenesis and biofilm formation in Candida parapsilosis.

Efg1 (a member of the APSES family) is an important regulator of hyphal growth and of the white-to-opaque transition in Candida albicans and very closely related species. We show that in Candida parapsilosis Efg1 is a major regulator of a different morphological switch at the colony level, from a concentric to smooth morphology. The rate of switching is at least 20-fold increased in an efg1 knockout relative to wild type. Efg1 deletion strains also have reduced biofilm formation, attenuated virulence in an insect model, and increased sensitivity to SDS and caspofungin. Biofilm reduction is more dramatic in in vitro than in in vivo models. An Efg1 paralogue (Efh1) is restricted to Candida species, and does not regulate concentric-smooth phenotype switching, biofilm formation or stress response. We used ChIP-seq to identify the Efg1 regulon. A total of 931 promoter regions bound by Efg1 are highly enriched for transcription factors and regulatory proteins. Efg1 also binds to its own promoter, and negatively regulates its expression. Efg1 targets are enriched in binding sites for 93 additional transcription factors, including Ndt80. Our analysis suggests that Efg1 has an ancient role as regulator of development in fungi, and is central to several regulatory networks.