The bioinformatics resource for oral pathogens.

Complete genomic sequences of several oral pathogens have been deciphered and multiple sources of independently annotated data are available for the same genomes. Different gene identification schemes and functional annotation methods used in these databases present a challenge for cross-referencing and the efficient use of the data. The Bioinformatics Resource for Oral Pathogens (BROP) aims to integrate bioinformatics data from multiple sources for easy comparison, analysis and data-mining through specially designed software interfaces. Currently, databases and tools provided by BROP include: (i) a graphical genome viewer (Genome Viewer) that allows side-by-side visual comparison of independently annotated datasets for the same genome; (ii) a pipeline of automatic data-mining algorithms to keep the genome annotation always up-to-date; (iii) comparative genomic tools such as Genome-wide ORF Alignment (GOAL); and (iv) the Oral Pathogen Microarray Database. BROP can also handle unfinished genomic sequences and provides secure yet flexible control over data access. The concept of providing an integrated source of genomic data, as well as the data-mining model used in BROP can be applied to other organisms. BROP can be publicly accessed at http://www.brop.org.

Nocturnal Hypertension Correlates Better With Target Organ Damage in Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease than a Nondipping Pattern.

Both nocturnal hypertension and nondipping pattern are associated with target organ damages (TODs); however, no data exist with respect to Chinese patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The authors recruited 1322 patients with CKD admitted to our hospital division and referred with data in this cross-sectional study. Patients with nocturnal systolic hypertension had a lower estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and higher left ventricular mass index (LVMI) and carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) compared with patients with normal nocturnal systolic blood pressure (SPB; all, P<.001), while patients in the dipper and nondipper groups had similar levels of eGFR, LVMI, and cIMT when the patients had a similar nocturnal SBP. Factorial-designed analysis of variance indicated that the main effect of nocturnal SBP was significant for all TOD differences (all, P<.001), but no significance existed with respect to the main effect of the dipper pattern and an interaction between the two factors (all, P>.05). Nocturnal systolic hypertension, rather than nondipping pattern, was an independent risk factor for TOD in CKD patients. Nocturnal hypertension, rather than a nondipping pattern, was better associated with TOD in CKD patients.

High prevalence of isolated nocturnal hypertension in Chinese patients with chronic kidney disease.

BACKGROUND: Isolated nocturnal hypertension (INH) has been studied among the general population and hypertensive patients. However, little insight is available on the prevalence of INH and its role in target-organ damage among patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). METHODS AND RESULTS: We recruited 1282 CKD patients admitted to our hospital division. Patients were divided into 4 groups: INH; isolated daytime hypertension; day-night sustained; and ambulatory normotension. Multiple linear regression analyses were used to evaluate the correlation between INH and renal/cardiovascular parameters. A total of 262 (20.44%) CKD patients had isolated nocturnal hypertension and 651 (50.78%) had day-night sustained hypertension, whereas only 350 (27.30%) patients showed normotension and 19 (1.48%) had isolated daytime hypertension. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that INH was associated mainly with age, estimated glomerular filtration rate, clinic diastolic blood pressure, and that INH was determined only by age, estimated glomerular filtration rate, and clinic diastolic blood pressure. The prevalence of impaired renal function, left ventricular hypertrophy, and carotid intima-media thickness in patients with INH were higher than in normotensive patients (P<0.05), whereas impaired renal function and left ventricular hypertrophy in these patients were lower than patients in the day-night sustained hypertension group (P<0.05). INH was correlated with estimated glomerular filtration rate, left ventricular mass index, and carotid intima-media thickness according to multiple linear regression analyses. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of INH in CKD patients was high, and INH was correlated with target-organ damage in CKD patients.