1,721,009 research outputs found
Relationship between leptin, insulin, body composition and liver steatosis in non-diabetic moderate drinkers with normal transaminase levels.
No full text
ADMA is independently related to flow-mediated vasodilation in subjects at low cardiovascular risk.
No full textBACKGROUND: Increased plasma concentrations of asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) contribute to impair endothelial function in patients with established cardiovascular disease (CVD) and/or individuals with clinical syndromes known to increase CVD. However, the impact of ADMA on endothelial function in apparently healthy individuals has not been determined.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: To address this issue, we measured endothelial-dependent vasodilatation in response to forearm ischaemia (flow-mediated vasodilatation, FMD) in 111 non-smoking, healthy volunteers with low CVD risk by the Framingham risk equation. Measurements were also made of multiple anthropometric, metabolic, and dynamic variables related to FMD. l-arginine and its methylated derivates (ADMA and SDMA) were quantified by high-liquid pressure chromatography.
RESULTS: After adjustment by gender, lower values for FMD were significantly associated with increases in plasma ADMA concentrations (anova linear trend by FMD tertiles, P < 0.05) as well as in brachial artery diameter (partial r = -0.352, P = 0.001), body mass index (-0.337, P = 0.001), fasting insulin (-0.368, P < 0.001) and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (-0.283, P = 0.007) plasma concentrations, and with decreased HDL cholesterol (0.233, P = 0.026). Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that the only statistically significant predictors of FMD were brachial artery diameter (P < 0.001), ADMA (P < 0.05) and fasting plasma insulin (P < 0.001) concentrations.
CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, a significant relationship between increases in plasma ADMA concentration and lower values of FMD is not limited to patients with clinical syndromes related to CVD, but can also be seen in healthy subjects at low global CVD risk
The increase in plasma PAI-1 associated with insulin resistance may be mediated by the presence of hepatic steatosis
No full textOBJECTIVE:
Recent evidence suggests that plasminogen-activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) is abundantly produced by the fatty liver, but it is unclear whether hepatic steatosis (HS) can mediate the increase in plasma PAI-1 induced by insulin resistance/compensatory hyperinsulinemia (IR/CH).
METHODS AND RESULTS:
To address this issue, we cross-sectionally evaluated IR/CH as area under the curve of plasma insulin (AUC-PI) concentrations during OGTT, metabolic profile, and ultrasound degree of HS in 235 healthy volunteers (132M, age: 60+/-7 years) with normal transaminase concentrations. Circulating PAI-1 was increased in subjects with classical features of IR/CH (overweight, high fasting and post-OGTT insulin and glucose, high triglycerides (TG), and low HDL-cholesterol), and significantly correlated to prevalence and degree of HS, but not to alcohol intake. In a multivariate model, AUC-PI, TG and degree of HS were independent predictors of plasma PAI-1 (R(2)=0.32). However, AUC-PI was significantly correlated to PAI-1 only in subjects with HS, suggesting an interaction between AUC-PI and HS. In addition, in the presence of HS and IR/CH, PAI-1 concentrations were increased to a similar extent both in heavy and moderate drinkers, suggesting that metabolic and alcoholic steatosis have a similar effect on the relationship between IR/CH and PAI-1.
CONCLUSION:
These results support the hypothesis that HS has a major impact on the relationship between IR/CH and plasma PAI-1 concentrations, and this effect seems to be unaffected by the etiology of the HS
Insulin resistance/compensatory hyperinsulinemia predict carotid intimal medial thickness in patients with essential hypertension.
No full textHyperinsulinemia predicts hepatic fat content in healthy individuals with normal transaminase concentrations.
No full textShort- and long-term beneficial effects of trimetazidine in patients with diabetes and ischemic cardiomyopathy
No full textBackground Trimetazidine (TMZ) has been shown to partially inhibit free fatty acid oxidation by shifting substrate utilization from fatty acid to glucose. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of TMZ in patients with diabetes and ischemic cardiomyopathy. Methods Sixteen patients with diabetes and ischemic hypokinetic cardiomyopathy (all males) on conventional therapy were randomized to receive either placebo or TMZ (20 mg 3 times per day), each arm lasting 15 days, and then again to receive either placebo or TMZ for 2 additional 6-month periods, according to a double-blind, crossover design. At the end of each period, all patients underwent exercise testing, 2-dimensional echocardiography, and hyperinsulinemic/euglycemic clamp. Among the others, New York Heart Association class, ejection fraction, exercise time, fasting blood glucose, end-clamp M value (index of total body glucose disposal) and endothelin-1 levels were evaluated. Results Both in the short and long term (completed by 13 patients), on TMZ compared to placebo., ejection fraction (47+/-7 vs 41+/-9 and 45+/-8 vs 36+/-8%, P<.001 for both) and M value (4.0&PLUSMN;1.8 vs 3.3&PLUSMN;1.6, P=.003, and 3.5&PLUSMN;1.5 vs 2.7&PLUSMN;1.6 mg/kg body weight/min, P<.01) increased, while fasting blood glucose (1.21+/-30 vs 136+/-40, P=.02 and 125+/-36 vs 140+/-43, P=.19) and endothelin-1 (8.8+/-3.8 vs 10.9+/-3.8, P<.001 and 6.2&PLUSMN;2.4 vs 9.2&PLUSMN;4.3 pg/mL, P=.03) decreased. In the short term, 10 patients decreased 1 class on the NYHA scale during treatment with TMZ (P=.019 vs placebo). Eight patients decreased 1 NYHA class while on long-term TMZ treatment, while on placebo 1 patient increased 1 NYHA class and none improved (P=.018 vs placebo). Conclusions In a short series of patients with diabetes and ischemic cardiomyopathy, TMZ improved left ventricular function, symptoms, glucose metabolism, and endothelial function. Shifting energy substrate preference away from fatty acid metabolism and toward glucose metabolism by TMZ appears an effective adjunctive treatment in patients with diabetes with postischemic cardiomyopathy
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
- …
