To study the agreement among three distinct criteria for metabolic syndrome (MS) adapted to adolescents, and to identify associated factors for MS. Cross-sectional study with 65 obese subjects aged 10 to 18 years, attended to at the Outpatient Clinic for Obese Children and Adolescents at the Clinical Hospital of the ...

There are limited data on the prevalence rate of Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) among college students attending any Historically Black College and University (HBCU), which are mostly attended by young African Americans (AA). We report the prevalence and gender differences in the components of MetS in a sample population from ...

Background. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) within individual cohorts varies with the definition used. The aim of this study was to compare the prevalence of MetS between IDF and revised NCEP ATP III criteria in an urban Sri Lankan population and to investigate the characteristics of discrepant cases. Methods. ...

There is a striking increase in the number of people with metabolic syndrome (MetS) as a result of the global epidemic of obesity and diabetes. Increasing evidence suggests that uric acid may play a role in MetS. To assess the prevalence of MetS in a large cohort from Israel and ...

BACKGROUND: Lower ambulatory performance with aging may be related to a reduced oxidative capacity within skeletal muscle. This study examined the associations between skeletal muscle mitochondrial capacity and efficiency with walking performance of the elderly participants. METHODS: Thirty-seven older adults (mean age 78 years; 21 men and 16 women) completed ...

Endothelin-1 (ET-1) is a vasoconstrictor implicated in age-related retinal pathologies. This study determined whether responses to ET-1 differed in retinal arterioles isolated from adult (2-3 months) and aged (>20 months) Fischer 344 rats of both sexes. Risk factors for retinal disease (retinal perfusion pressure, intraocular pressure, blood glucose) were not ...

To describe the pharmacokinetics, preclinical studies, and clinical trials of the newly approved anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) drug aflibercept (Eylea (VEGF Trap-Eye); Regeneron; and Bayer). Review with editorial commentary. A review of the medical literature and pertinent Internet postings combined with analysis of key studies with expert opinion regarding ...

Purpose. To evaluate choroid thickness (CT) with RTVue spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) and the effect of age and myopia in eyes without posterior complications. Methods. In this multicenter cross-sectional study, all enrolled patients were over age 18 and divided them in 3 groups based on refraction: emmetropia (+1 ...

PURPOSE: To investigate the association of premature birth with macular parameters measured by spectral domain coherence tomography (SD-OCT). METHODS: The Sydney Adolescent Vascular and Eye Study performed eye examinations in school students across Sydney between 2009 and 2011. Visual acuity, cycloplegic autorefraction, and optical biometry measurements were recorded. Macular parameters ...

Age-related macular degeneration is an outer retinal disease that involves aging and immune dysfunction. In the aging retina, microglia aggregate in the outer retina and acquire intracellular autofluorescent lipofuscin deposits. In this study, we investigated whether accumulation of A2E, a key bisretinoid constituent of ocular lipofuscin, alters the physiology of ...

Purpose: To measure oxygen saturation in retinal vessels of healthy eyes to determine the effects of age, gender, and cardiovascular parameters as well as the reliability of the measurements and topographical differences.Methods: The Oxymap T1 retinal oximeter is based on a fundus camera. It simultaneously captures retinal images at two ...

The case of a 31-year-old captive female Western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) with decreased near vision but good distance vision is presented. Examination of the fundus revealed drusen-like bodies in the macula presumably because of an age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

PURPOSE: To describe the sex- and age-specific prevalence of drusen, geographic atrophy, and neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD). DESIGN: Population-based, cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS: Caucasian adults aged 65 to 87 years from the 6th Tromsø Study, a population-based study conducted in 2007-2008 in the municipality of Tromsø, Norway. METHODS: Digital color ...

Purpose:  To project the number of persons with late age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in Scandinavia through 2040. Methods:  Age- and sex-specific prevalence rates of late AMD (choroidal neovascularization and geographic atrophy) from the European Eye Study and the Eye Diseases Prevalence Research Group were applied to the projected Danish, Norwegian ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE:To evaluate choroidal thickness at five macular locations and assess the correlations between choroidal thickness at these locations with age, refractive error, and axial length. PATIENTS AND METHODS:Eighty-four eyes from 42 healthy adult volunteers were included. Enhanced depth imaging by spectral-domain optical coherence tomography was performed, and choroidal ...

Resilience is proposed as a significant component of successful aging. Young adult carriers of the Serotonin Transporter Polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) short(s) allele appear to have reduced resilience to stress. We examined whether the presence of the short allele was associated with poorer emotional resilience in older adults. In a cross-sectional study ...

Purpose:  To measure the concentration of cytokines in the aqueous humour of eyes with exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Methods:  The clinical interventional study included a study group of 18 patients with exudative AMD and a control group of 20 patients undergoing routine cataract surgery. Age did not vary significantly ...

PURPOSE: To examine associations between recognized genetic susceptibility loci and angiographic subphenotypes of the neovascular variant of age-related macular degeneration (nvAMD). METHODS: Participants (247 nvAMD, 52 early age-related macular degeneration [AMD], and 103 controls) were genotyped (complement factor H and ARMS2/HTRA1). nvAMD participants were assigned to one of two subcategories: ...

PURPOSE: To investigate the subfoveal choroidal thickness of healthy Japanese subjects using enhanced depth imaging optical coherence tomography and to evaluate the association between subfoveal choroidal thickness and age in a group of subjects with a wide age range. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A total of 145 eyes of 145 healthy ...

Elbow flexion contracture is a well-known complication of brachial plexus birth palsy that adversely affects upper-extremity function. The prevalence, risk factors, and rate of progression of elbow flexion contracture associated with brachial plexus birth palsy have not been established, and the effectiveness of nonoperative treatment involving nighttime splinting or serial ...

PURPOSE.: This study was designed to analyze macular tomography in patients of different ages with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and correlate their visual function with macular thickness, which was measured by optical coherence tomography. METHODS.: In all, 75 RP patients and 75 controls were stratified into three age groups and macular ...

To clarify the efficacy of the macular mapping test (MMT) to identify eccentric fixation with preferred retinal loci (PRL). Retrospective observational case series from archived data. Cases with age-related macular degeneration with low vision in both eyes and best corrected visual activity (BCVA) of 20/50 to 20/400 in the better ...

Eleven patients, 40 to 71 years old, had a choroidal vasculopathy that led to hemorrhagic and exudative macular degeneration. The patients had peculiar polypoidal, subretinal, vascular lesions associated with serous and hemorrhagic detachments of the retinal pigment epithelium. This macular disorder, which we have named idiopathic polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (IPCV), ...

Emerging treatments for dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and geographi c atrophy focus on two strategies that target components involved in physiopathological pathways: prevention of photoreceptors and retinal pigment epithelium loss (neuroprotection induction, oxidative damage prevention, and visual cycle modification) and suppression of inflammation. Neuroprotective drugs, such as ciliary neurotrophic ...

Human T-cell leukemia virus type-1 (HTLV-1), a major source of adult T-cell leukemia and related diseases, is endemic to southwestern Japan. Mother-to-infant transmission via breast milk is an important route of infection, and establishing programs to prevent such transmission requires exact figures on the HTLV-1 prevalence rate and the number ...

To capture the neuropsychological profile among male carriers of the FMR1 premutation allele (55-200 CGG repeats) who do not meet diagnostic criteria for the late-onset fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome, FXTAS. We have initiated a multicenter collaboration that includes 3 independent cohorts, totaling 100 carriers of the premutation and 216 noncarriers. ...

Retinal melatonin is involved in the modulation of many important retinal functions. Our previous studies have shown that the viability of photoreceptors and ganglion cells is reduced during aging in mice that lack melatonin receptor type 1. This demonstrates that melatonin signaling is important for the survival of retinal neurons. ...

Choroidal neovascularization (CNV) may occur in up to 40% of patients with punctate inner choroidopathy (PIC). We report a case of a young woman of childbearing age treated successfully for an inflammatory choroidal neovascular membrane (CNV) secondary to PIC with a combination of intravitreal ranibizumab and photodynamic therapy (PDT).

The authors present anatomical and functional evidences of dry age-macular degeneration improvement, after intravitreal treatment with dobesilate. Main outcomes measures were normalisation of retinal structure and function, assessed by optical coherence tomography, fundus-monitored microperimetry, electrophysiology and visual acuity. The effect might be related to the normalisation of the outer retinal ...

Aging of retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells of the eye is marked by accumulations of bisretinoid fluorophores; two of the compounds within this lipofuscin mixture are A2E and all-trans-retinal dimer. These pigments are implicated in pathological mechanisms involved in some vision-threatening disorders including age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Studies have shown ...

Age-related degeneration (AMD) and asthma are both diseases that are related to the activation of the complement system. The association between AMD and asthma has been debated in previous studies. The authors investigated the relationship between AMD and asthma systemically. The epidemiological study showed that asthma was related to choroidal ...

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a debilitating, common cause of visual impairment. While the last decade has seen great progress in understanding the pathophysiology of AMD, the molecular changes that occur in eyes with AMD are still poorly understood. In the current issue of Genome Medicine, Newman and colleagues present ...

To determine normal macular thickness and its variation by age and gender in healthy eyes using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). In this cross-sectional analysis, two hundred and twenty eyes of 220 healthy subjects underwent raster scanning using Topcon SD-OCT system, at the Department of Ophthalmology, Dow University of Health ...

The inhalation of 35% carbon dioxide (CO(2)) results in an acute stress response in healthy individuals and may accordingly provide a good paradigm to examine potential vulnerability factors for stress reactivity and stress-related psychopathology. It has been proposed that CO(2) reactivity is moderated by genetic (5-HTTLPR) and personality (neuroticism) factors, ...

The epsilon4 allele of the apolipoprotein E gene (ApoE), as well as aging increase the risk of Alzheimer's and vascular diseases. Electroencephalogram (EEG) reactivity to hyperventilation (HV) depends on hypocapnia-induced cerebral vasoconstriction, which may be impaired in subjects with subclinical cerebrovascular disease. Quantitative EEG at rest and under 3-minute HV ...

According to the reserve hypothesis, a high educational/occupational attainment can modulate Alzheimer's disease (AD) clinical expression. The impact of the Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) ε4 allele on the reserve mechanism in AD has not been assessed. Aim of this European multicenter study was to evaluate the metabolic correlates of reserve and ...

Objectives. Evidence suggests the involvement of the dopamine D4 receptor gene (DRD4) in the pathogenesis of ADHD, but the exact mechanism is not well understood. Earlier reports on the effects of DRD4 polymorphisms on neurocognitive and neuroimaging measures are inconsistent. This study investigated the functional consequences of the 7-repeat allele ...

Old age and possession of the APOE-4 allele are the two main risk factors for developing later onset Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Carriers of the APOE-4 allele have known differences in intrinsic functional brain network activity across the life span. These individuals also demonstrate specific regional differences in gray and white ...

The pathogenesis of coronary artery disease (CAD) is closely associated with inflammation, in which human leukocyte antigens (HLA), especially HLA-DR molecules, play important roles. However, whether various HLA-DRB1 alleles can contribute differing susceptibility to CAD has not been elucidated. In this study, we demonstrated a significantly lower frequency of HLA-DRB1*12:02:01 ...

Carriers of reciprocal translocations (rcp) are known to be at risk for reproductive difficulties. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is one of the options these carriers have to try in order to fulfil their desire to have a child. In the present study, we retrospectively looked at the results of 11 ...

Background/aims: The extent and time course of vision loss in Choroideremia (CHM) is still unclear. We undertook this study to quantitate the change in visual acuity (VA) over time in order to gain a better understanding of the natural course of this retinal disorder. Methods: Corrected VA of 120 males ...

The current study investigated the relationship between adiposity and P3 latency. Fifty-one adults in two age groups (18-25 and 65+) participated. Odor stimuli were delivered via olfactometer as participants focused on a computer screen. Each stimulus was followed by presentation on the screen of four odor identification choices. Participants attempted ...

Staphylococcus aureus nasal carriers risk autoinfection; however, knowledge about the factors that make specific strains successful colonizers is limited. This study was undertaken to identify the most successful S. aureus clones in nasal carriers and compare their distribution among host groups. The population structure of S. aureus isolates from healthy ...

To determine how accurately adult listeners can identify speaker sex in children's voices, we presented vowels in /hVd/ syllables produced in isolation and in a brief carrier sentence by five boys and five girls from each of four age groups (5-8, 9-12, 13-16, and 17-18 yr). Speaker sex identification improved ...

Recurrent genomic imbalances at 16p11.2 are genetic risk factors of variable penetrance for developmental delay and autism. Recently, 16p11.2 (chr16:29.5 Mb-30.1 Mb) deletion has also been detected in individuals with early-onset severe obesity. The penetrance of 16p11.2 deletion as a genetic risk factor for obesity is unknown. We evaluated the growth and ...

Currently, medicine intensively searches for methods to transport drugs to a target (sick) point within the body. The objective of the present investigation was to evaluate morphological characteristics of the assembles of silver or diamond nanoparticles with Salmonella Enteritidis (G-) or Listeria monocytogenes (G+), to reveal possibilities of constructing nanoparticle-bacteria ...

OBJECTIVE: Investigation of the audiometric characteristics of a large Dutch DFNX4 family with a p.Glu72X mutation in the SMPX gene. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Sixty family members participated in this study and examination consisted of medical history, otoscopy, pure tone and speech audiometry. Linkage and mutation analysis revealed a pathogenic mutation ...

Aging is associated with appearance of white matter hyperintensities (WMH) on MRI scans. Vascular risk and inflammation, which increase with age, may contribute to white matter deterioration and proliferation of WMH. We investigated whether circulating biomarkers and genetic variants associated with elevated vascular risk and inflammation are associated with WMH ...

This study investigates the association of the APOE ε4 allele and leisure activity with brain tissue volumes, including white matter hyperintensities (WMH), in a population-based cohort of 4303 nondemented individuals, aged 66-96 years. APOE ε4 carriers were shown to have greater WMH and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) volumes than noncarriers but ...

Ages at natural menarche and menopause are influenced by several genetic factors. This study aimed to investigate the possible relationship between the apolipoprotein E (ApoE) genotype and the age at menarche and natural menopause in Chinese females. In the current study, 398 (elderly group, aged 47-80 years) and 825 (young group, ...