1,720,957 research outputs found
Association of serum triglyceride-to-HDL cholesterol ratio with carotid artery intima-media thickness, insulin resistance and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in children and adolescents
No full textBackground and aims: The triglyceride (TG)/high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) ratio has been reported as a useful marker of atherogenic lipid abnormalities, insulin resistance, and cardiovascular disease. We evaluated in a large sample of children and adolescents the association of TG/HDL-C ratio with early signs of morphological vascular changes and cardiometabolic risk factors including nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Methods and results: The study population, including 548 children (aged 6-16 years), of whom 157 were normal-weight, 118 overweight, and 273 obese, had anthropometric, laboratory, liver and carotid ultrasonography (carotid artery intima-media thickness-cIMT) data collected. Subjects were stratified into tertiles of TG/HDL-C. There was a progressive increase in body mass index (BMI), BMI-SD score (SDS), waist circumference, blood pressure (BP), liver enzymes, glucose, insulin, homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), and cIMT values across TG/HDL-C tertiles. The odds ratios for central obesity, insulin resistance, high hsCRP, NAFLD, metabolic syndrome, and elevated cIMT increased significantly with the increasing tertile of TG/HDL-C ratio, after adjustment for age, gender, pubertal status, and BMI-SDS. In a stepwise multivariate logistic regression analysis, increased cIMT was associated with high TG/HDL-C ratio [OR, 1.81 (95% CI, 1.08-3.04); P < 0.05], elevated BP [5.13 (95% CI, 1.03-15.08); P < 0.05], insulin resistance [2.16 (95% CI, 1.30-3.39); P < 0.01], and NAFLD [2.70 (95% CI, 1.62-4.56); P < 0.01]. Conclusion: TG/HDL-C ratio may help identify children and adolescents at high risk for structural vascular changes and metabolic derangement. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
Probiotics for the treatment of Helicobacter pylori infection in children
No full textThe combination of a proton pump inhibitor and two antibiotics (clarithromycin plus amoxicillin or metronidazole) has been the recommended first-line therapy since the first guidelines for Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection in children were published. In recent years, the success of eradication therapies has declined, in part due to the development of H. pylori resistant strains. Alternative anti-H. pylori treatments are currently becoming more popular than the traditional eradication methods. Components that may be used either as a monotherapy or, in combination with anti-microbials, resulting in a more effective anti-H. pylori therapy have been investigated in depth by several researchers. One of the potential therapies is probiotic cultures; promising results have been observed in initial studies with numerous probiotic strains. Nevertheless, many questions remain unanswered. In this article, we comprehensively review the possible mechanisms of action of probiotics on H. pylori infection, and present the results of published studies using probiotics as possible agents to control H. pylori infection in children. The effect of the addition of probiotics to the standard H. pylori eradication therapy for the prevention of antibiotic associated side-effects is also discussed. (C) 2014 Baishideng Publishing Group Co., Limited. All rights reserved
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and the heart in children and adolescents
No full textOver the last two decades, the rise in the prevalence rates of overweight and obesity explains the emergence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) as the leading cause of chronic liver disease worldwide. As described in adults, children and adolescents with fatty liver display insulin resistance, glucose intolerance, and dyslipidemia. Thus NAFLD has emerged as the hepatic component of the metabolic syndrome (MetS) and a strong cardiovascular risk factor even at a very early age. Several studies, including pediatric populations, have reported independent associations between NAFLD and markers of subclinical atherosclerosis including impaired flow-mediated vasodilation, increased carotid artery intima-media thickness, and arterial stiffness, after adjusting for cardiovascular risk factors and MetS. Also, it has been shown that NAFLD is associated with cardiac alterations, including abnormal left ventricular structure and impaired diastolic function. The duration of these subclinical abnormalities may be important, because treatment to reverse the process is most likely to be effective earlier in the disease. In the present review, we examine the current evidence on the association between NAFLD and atherosclerosis as well as between NAFLD and cardiac dysfunction in the pediatric population, and discuss briefly the possible biological mechanisms linking NAFLD and cardiovascular changes. We also address the approach to treatment for this increasingly prevalent disease, which is likely to have an important future global impact on the burden of ill health, to prevent not only end-stage liver disease but also cardiovascular disease
Increased circulating zonulin in children with biopsy-proven nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
No full textAIM: To investigate the potential association of circulating zonulin with the stage of liver disease in obese children with biopsy-confirmed nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). METHODS: A case-control study was performed. Cases were 40 obese children with NAFLD. The diagnosis of NAFLD was based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with high hepatic fat fraction (HFF >= 5%), and confirmed by liver biopsy with >= 5% of hepatocytes containing macrovesicular fat. Controls were selected from obese children with normal levels of aminotransferases, and without MRI evidence of fatty liver as well as of other causes of chronic liver diseases. Controls were matched (1-to 1) with the cases on age, gender, pubertal stage and as closely as possible on body mass index-standard deviation score. All participants underwent clinical examination, laboratory tests including zonulin, inflammatory and metabolic parameters, and MRI for measurement of HFF and visceral adipose tissue. RESULTS: Zonulin values were significantly greater in obese subjects with NAFLD than in those without NAFLD [median (interquartile range), 4.23 (3.18-5.89) vs 3.31 (2.05-4.63), P < 0.01]. In patients with NAFLD, zonulin concentrations increased significantly with the severity of steatosis and the Spearman's coefficient revealed a positive correlation between zonulin values and steatosis (r = 0.372, P < 0.05); however, we did not find a significant correlation between zonulin and lobular inflammation (P = 0.23), ballooning (P = 0.10), fibrosis score (P = 0.18), or presence of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (P = 0.17). Within the entire study population, zonulin levels were positively associated with gamma-glutamyl transferase, 2-h insulin, HFF, and negatively associated with whole-body insulin sensitivity index (WBISI), after adjustment for age, gender and pubertal status. When the associations were restricted to the group of NAFLD patients, 2-h insulin, hepatic fat, and WBISI retained statistical significance. CONCLUSION: Circulating zonulin is increased in children and adolescents with NAFLD and correlates with the severity of steatosis. (C) 2014 Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved
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
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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