Bone mineral density comparison of total body, lumbar and thoracic: an exploratory study.

OBJECTIVE: To analyse the behaviour of bone mineral density (BMD) of total body, lumbar and thoracic spine, and compare it between different age-groups, ethnicity and gender as a secondary analysis of already published data of NHANES. METHODS: The study was done and compared data of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey which was done from 1999 to 2006. It comprised bone mineral density data of 26,215 subjects of age 8 years and over. The sample was divided into 10 age groups, 3 ethnicities and gender groups. All subjects had bodyweights not exceeding 300lb, and height not greater than 6'5''. Female subjects were non-pregnant. SPSS 16 was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: Of the total subjects, 7712 (29.41%) were Mexican Americans, 11236 (42.86%) were non-Hispanic whites and 7267 (27.73%) were non-Hispanic blacks. There were 13291 (50.69%) males, and each ethnic group also had approximately 50% males. The bone mineral density of non-Hispanic blacks was higher than the other two groups, whereas males of all ethnic groups and races had higher density then females of the same group. Bone mineral density of total body, lumbar and thoracic was significantly different. After 50 years of age, total body, lumbar and thoracic bone mineral density decreased in females but lumbar slightly increased in males, whereas thoracic remained stable and total body decreased. CONCLUSIONS: The bone mineral density of male and blacks was higher than female and non-black races in total body, lumbar and thoracic spine. The thoracic BMD was lower and might predict early fracture risk.

Epidemiologic and HLA antigen profile in patients with aplastic anemia.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze patients suffering from aplastic anemia (AA, peripheral pancytopenia and hypocellular bone marrow in the absence of dysplasia, infiltration and fibrosis) for documenting patient's baseline characteristics and association with various human leucocyte antigens. STUDY DESIGN: An observational, cross-sectional study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY: The National Institute of Blood Disease (NIBD), Karachi, from March 2003 to August 2008. METHODOLOGY: All consecutive patients with confirmed diagnosis of AA were evaluated. Data included the baseline characteristics, complete blood counts (CBC), bone marrow biopsy findings, severity of disease, exposure to drugs or chemicals, viral serology and their HLA expression. The data was analyzed on SPSS programme and frequencies were documented. RESULTS: Among 318 patients, there were 236 (74.21%) males and 82 (25.78%) females. Median age was 16 and 70% belonged to urban population. Drug exposure could be established in 23 (7.23%) of cases, while 4 (1.25%) were HBV surface antigen positive and 7 (2.2%) were HCV antibodies positive. In all, 73 (22.9%) had very severe AA, 195 (61.32%) had severe AA while 50 (15.7%) cases had non-severe AA. HLA B5 (52) showed high expression in 83 patients (26%) in comparison to 5.9% reported in healthy population. CONCLUSION: AA was found to affect young adult males living in urban areas. HLA B5 (52) showed higher expression in patients with aplastic anemia.

Endoscopic retrograde cholangiography does not reliably distinguish IgG4-associated cholangitis from primary sclerosing cholangitis or cholangiocarcinoma.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Distinction of immunoglobulin G4-associated cholangitis (IAC) from primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) or cholangiocarcinoma is challenging. We aimed to assess the performance characteristics of endoscopic retrograde cholangiography (ERC) for the diagnosis of IAC. METHODS: Seventeen physicians from centers in the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom, unaware of clinical data, reviewed 40 preselected ERCs of patients with IAC (n = 20), PSC (n = 10), and cholangiocarcinoma (n = 10). The performance characteristics of ERC for IAC diagnosis as well as the κ statistic for intraobserver and interobserver agreement were calculated. RESULTS: The overall specificity, sensitivity, and interobserver agreement for the diagnosis of IAC were 88%, 45%, and 0.18, respectively. Reviewer origin, specialty, or years of experience had no statistically significant effect on reporting success. The overall intraobserver agreement was fair (0.74). The operating characteristics of different ERC features for the diagnosis of IAC were poor. CONCLUSIONS: Despite high specificity of ERC for diagnosing IAC, sensitivity is poor, suggesting that many patients with IAC may be misdiagnosed with PSC or cholangiocarcinoma. Additional diagnostic strategies are likely to be vital in distinguishing these diseases.

Conservation biology in Asia: the major policy challenges.

With about half the world's human population and booming economies, Asia faces numerous challenges to its biodiversity. The Asia Section of the Society for Conservation Biology has identified some key policy issues in which significant progress can be made. These include developing new sources of funding for forest conservation; identifying potential impacts of energy alternatives on the conservation of biodiversity; curbing the trade in endangered species of plants and animals; a special focus on the conservation of mountain biodiversity; enhancing relevant research; ensuring that conservation biology contributes to major international conventions and funding mechanisms; using conservation biology to build a better understanding of zoonotic diseases; more effectively addressing human-animal conflicts; enhancing community-based conservation; and using conservation biology to help address the pervasive water-deficit problems in much of Asia. These challenges can be met through improved regional cooperation among the relevant stakeholders.

Beyond lipids, pharmacological PPARalpha activation has important effects on amino acid metabolism as studied in the rat.

PPARalpha agonists have been characterized largely in terms of their effects on lipids and glucose metabolism, whereas little has been reported about effects on amino acid metabolism. We studied responses to the PPARalpha agonist WY 14,643 (30 micromol x kg(-1) x day(-1) for 4 wk) in rats fed a saturated fat diet. Plasma and urine were analyzed with proton NMR. Plasma amino acids were measured using HPLC, and hepatic gene expression was assessed with DNA arrays. The high-fat diet elevated plasma levels of insulin and triglycerides (TG), and WY 14,643 treatment ameliorated this insulin resistance and dyslipidemia, lowering plasma insulin and TG levels. In addition, treatment decreased body weight gain, without altering cumulative food intake, and increased liver mass. WY 14,643 increased plasma levels of 12 of 22 amino acids, including glucogenic and some ketogenic amino acids, whereas arginine was significantly decreased. There was no alteration in branched-chain amino acid levels. Compared with the fat-fed control animals, WY 14,643-treated animals had raised plasma urea and ammonia levels as well as raised urine levels of N-methylnicotinamide and dimethylglycine. WY 14,643 induced changes in a number of key genes involved in amino acid metabolism in addition to expected effects on hepatic genes involved in lipid catabolism and ketone body formation. In conclusion, the present results suggest that, in rodents, effects of pharmacological PPARalpha activation extend beyond control of lipid metabolism to include important effects on whole body amino acid mobilization and hepatic amino acid metabolism.

Modeling hybridoma cell metabolism using a generic genome-scale metabolic model of Mus musculus.

The reconstructed cellular metabolic network of Mus musculus, based on annotated genomic data, pathway databases, and currently available biochemical and physiological information, is presented. Although incomplete, it represents the first attempt to collect and characterize the metabolic network of a mammalian cell on the basis of genomic data. The reaction network is generic in nature and attempts to capture the carbon, energy, and nitrogen metabolism of the cell. The metabolic reactions were compartmentalized between the cytosol and the mitochondria, including transport reactions between the compartments and the extracellular medium. The reaction list consists of 872 internal metabolites involved in a total of 1220 reactions, whereof 473 relate to known open reading frames. Initial in silico analysis of the reconstructed model is presented.