Study design and setting: The study had a cross-sectional design and included 18,770 men and women of the Oslo Health Study aged 30; 40 and 45; 69-60; 75-76 years.

Results: In both sexes and all age groups, SRH (3 categories: poor, good, very good) was positively correlated with HDL-C. Logistic regression analysis on dichotomized values of SRH (i.e. poor vs. good health) in each age group of men and women showed that increasing HDL-C values were associated with increasing odds for reporting good health; the odds ratio (OR) was highest in young men, and was generally lower in women than in men. Odds ratios in the 4 age groups of men were 4.94 (2.63-9.29), 2.25 (1.63-3.09), 2.12 (1.58-2.86), 1.87 (1.37-2.54); and in women: 3.58 (2.46-5.21), 2.81 (2.23-3.53), 2.28 (1.84-2.82), 1.61 (1.31-1.99). In the whole material, 1 mmol/L increase in HDL-C increased the odds for reporting good health by 2.27 (2.06-2.50; p<0.001), when adjusting for sex, age group, time since food intake and use of cholesterol lowering drugs. Chronic diseases, pain, psychological distress, smoking, alcohol, length of education, and dietary items did not have any major influence on the pattern of the HDL-C vs. SRH association.

Conclusion: There was a consistent positive association between HDL-C and SRH, in both men and women in four different age groups, with the strongest association in young people.

Methods: A convenience sample of 423 patients without prior coronary revascularization was evaluated with 3DMP before coronary angiography. 3DMP's sensitivity and specificity in detecting hemodynamically relevant coronary stenosis as diagnosed with coronary angiography were calculated as well as odds ratios for the 3DMP severity score and coronary artery disease risk factors.

Results: 3DMP identified 179 of 201 patients with hemodynamically relevant stenosis (sensitivity 89.1%, specificity 81.1%). The positive and negative predictive values for identification of coronary stenosis as diagnosed in coronary angiograms were 79% and 90% respectively. CAD risk factors in a logistic regression model had markedly lower predictive power for the presence of coronary stenosis in patients than did 3DMP severity score (odds ratio 3.35 [2.24-5.01] vs. 34.87 [20.00-60.79]). Logistic regression combining severity score with risk factors did not add significantly to the prediction quality (odds ratio 36.73 [20.92-64.51]).

Conclusions: 3DMP's computer-based, mathematically derived analysis of resting two-lead ECG data provides detection of hemodynamically relevant CAD with high sensitivity and specificity that appears to be at least as good as those reported for other resting and/or stress ECG methods currently used in clinical practice.

Methods: The effect of both tonic and burst TMS in 14 placebo-negative patients presenting narrow band/white noise tinnitus were analysed.

Results: Our TMS results show that narrow band/white noise tinnitus is better suppressed with burst TMS in comparison to tonic TMS, t(13)=6.4, p=.000. For pure tone tinnitus no difference is found between burst or tonic TMS, t(13)=.3, ns.

Discussion: Based on the hypothesis that white noise is the result of hyperactivity in the non-tonotopic system and pure tone tinnitus of the tonotopic system, we suggest that burst stimulation modulates the extralemniscal system and lemniscal system and tonic stimulation only the lemniscal system.

Methods: rTMS is performed both in tonic and burst mode in 46 patients contralateral to the tinnitus side, at 5, 10 and 20 Hz. Fourteen placebo negative rTMS responders are further analyzed.

Results: In 5 patients, maximal tinnitus suppression is obtained with theta, in 2 with alpha and in 7 with beta burst stimulation. Burst rTMS suppresses narrow band/white tinnitus much better than tonic rTMS t(13)=6.4, p<.000. Women experience greater suppression of their tinnitus with burst stimulation than men, t(12)=2.9, p<.05. Furthermore left sided tinnitus is perceived as more distressing on the TQ than right sided tinnitus, t(12)=3.2, p<.01. The lower the tinnitus pitch the more effectively rTMS suppresses tinnitus(r=-0.65, p<0.05).

Discussion: Burst rTMS can be used clinically, not only theta burst, but also alpha and beta burst. Burst rTMS is capable of suppressing narrow band/white noise tinnitus very much better than tonic rTMS. This could be due the simple fact that burst neuromodulation is more powerful than tonic neuromodulation or to a differential effect of burst and tonic stimulation on the lemniscal and extralemniscal auditory system. In some patients only alpha or beta burst rTMS is capable of suppressing tinnitus, and theta burst not. Therefore in future rTMS studies it could be worthwhile not to limit burst stimulation to theta burst rTMS.

Materials and Methods: In a cross-sectional study, we examined 97 unrelated healthy Japanese men (mean age: 45.6 years, range: 22-59). A clinical examination was performed at a worksite health checkup, and information was obtained using a self-reported questionnaire. DNA was extracted from whole blood, and the VDR ApaI, BsmI, and FokI polymorphisms were genotyped using polymerase chain reaction.

Results: F-carriers of FokI VDR polymorphisms were less likely to develop severe chronic periodontitis than non-F-carriers (p = 0.09). The ApaI and BsmI VDR polymorphisms did not show significant differences in the alleles or genotypes between the subjects with or without severe chronic periodontitis. The haplotype analysis of the three combined VDR polymorphisms revealed that the Abf homozygote had a notably higher prevalence of severe chronic periodontitis than the others, and adjustments for age, smoking status, number of teeth present, and prevalence of diabetes did not change this association (OR = 7.5; 95% CI = 1.6-34.4; p = 0.01).

Conclusion: The VDR haplotype constructed from the ApaI, BsmI, and FokI polymorphisms is related to the risk of severe chronic periodontitis in Japanese men.

Methods: Gerbils were divided into four groups: H. pylori -infected, rice-fluid-treated animals (group A); H. pylori -infected, untreated animals (group B); uninfected, rice-fluid-treated animals (group C); and uninfected, untreated animals (group D). Group A and B animals were killed 14 weeks after H. pylori infection and group C and D animals were killed at the same age. The stomachs were examined for histology, 5'-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU) labeling, and the bacterial burden. Serum anti-H. pylori antibody titers were also tested.

Results: The positive incidence of H. pylori -culture was 25 and 84 % in groups A and B, respectively (p<0.01). Both the degree of inflammation and the BrdU labeling index in group A were significantly lower than those in group B.

Conclusions: Rice-fluid showed an antibiotic effect on H. pylori and an anti-inflammatory effect on the H. pylori -associated gastritis.

Methods: Three series of placebo-controlled studies were conducted. All rats were pre-treated with daily SC injections of 1,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D₃ 100 ng/kg or placebo vehicle for 3 days. In study 1, sepsis was accomplished by abdominal surgery comprising a coecal ligation and puncture with a 1,2 mm needle, or sham surgery. In study 2, the rats had a single IP injection of lipopolysaccharide from E. Coli 0111:B4 (LPS) 8 mg/kg, or placebo. In study 3, an hour-long IV infusion of LPS 7 mg/kg, or placebo was given.

Results: All three models of sepsis showed significant effects on coagulation and liver function with reduced thrombocyte count and prothrombin time together with elevated ALT and bilirubin (p<0.05) as compared to controls. In study 1, the vitamin D treated rats maintained normal platelet count, whereas the vehicle treated rats showed a significant reduction (p<0.05). This effect of vitamin D on platelets was not found in the LPS-treated groups. We found no significant differences between vitamin D and placebo-treated rats with regards to liver function.

Conclusion: The present data suggest a positive modulating effect of 1,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D₃ supplementation on sepsis-induced coagulation disturbances in the coecal ligation and puncture model. No such effect was found in LPS-induced sepsis.

The practice of evidence-based medicine is a process of lifelong, self-directed, problem-based learning which leads to the need for clinically important information about diagnosis, prognosis, therapy and other clinical and health care issues. Nowadays the practice of dentistry is becoming more complex and challenging because of the continually changing in dental materials and equipments, an increasingly litigious society, an increase in the emphasis of continuing professional development, the information explosion and the consumer movement associated with advances on the Internet.

The need for reliable information and the electronic revolution have come together to allow the “paradigm shift” towards evidence-based health care. Recent years have seen an increase in the importance of evidence-based dentistry, aiming to reduce to the maximum the gap between clinical research and real world dental practice. Aim of evidence-based practice is the systematic literature review, which synthesizes the best evidences and provides the basis for clinical practice guidelines. These practice guidelines give a brief review of what evidence-based dentistry is and how to use it.

A model of normal and abnormal cell cycle oscillations has been developed incorporating systems science, complexity, and chaos theories. Using this model, cancer expresses a failing subsystem and is characterized by a positive exponential growth taking place in the outer edge of chaos. The overall survival of human body as a system is threatened. This model suggests, however, that cancer's exponential cellular growth and disorganized complexity could be controlled through the process of induction of differentiation of cancer stem cells into cells of low and basic functionality.

This concept would imply reorientation of current treatment principles from cellular killing (cyto-toxic therapies) to cellular retraining (cyto-education).

Material and methods: 4177 employees between 18 and 45 years were interviewed using a self-administered questionnaire in 1990 regarding sickness absence, age, gender, socioeconomic position, health behaviour, and physical and psychosocial work environment. They were followed for 168 months in a national disability pension register. Logistic regression analysis was performed in order to assess risk estimates for levels of absence and future disability pension.

Results: During follow-up, a total of 140 persons (3.4%) received disability pension. Of these, 82 (58.6%) were women, 58 (41.4%) were men. There was a 2.5 fold risk of future disability pension for the part of the population reporting more than 6 days of sickness absence per annum at baseline, when taking into account gender, age, socioeconomic position, health behaviour, physical and psychosocial work environment.

Conclusion: The findings suggest that information on self-reported days of sickness absence can be used to effectively identify “at risk” groups for disability pension.

Methods: The polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformation polymorphism method and nucleotide sequencing were used to identify variants.

Results: A novel variable number of tandem repeat (VNTR) polymorphism in the 5'-flanking region (-1241 nucleotides from the major transcriptional initiation site) was discovered. This VNTR polymorphism is a tandem repeat of the 4-nucleotide sequence TTTC. There were 8 alleles, ranging from 9-repeat to 19-repeat. An association study was done involving 317 EH patients and 262 age-matched normotensive (NT) subjects. The 11-repeat allele was the most frequent (88.2%); the 16-repeat allele was the second most frequent (10.5%) in the NT group. The observed and expected genotypes were in agreement with the predicted Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium values (P=0.972). Among females, the overall distribution of genotypes was significantly different between the EH and NT groups (p=0.039). The frequency of the 16-repeat allele was significantly lower in the female EH group (6.5%) than in the female NT group (12.2%, p=0.046).

Conclusions: The 16-repeat allele of the VNTR in the 5'-flanking region of NPPB appears to be a useful genetic marker of EH in females.

Methods: The radical production during carotid endarterectomy was studied in 13 patients with an ex vivo spin trap method using OXANOH as a spin trap. MCP-1, ICAM-1, MMP-9 and oxLDL were determined in venous blood samples before, during and after clamping of the carotid artery. Principal component analysis (PCA) as well as partial least square regression analysis (PLS) was applied to interpret the data.

Results: PCA and PLS analysis revealed that high values of MMP-9 and low values of ICAM-1 were associated with high radical production whereas MCP-1 and oxLDL were not correlated to radical production. MMP-9 was elevated at diabetes, high haemoglobin, high leucocyte counts and thrombocyte counts as well as at contralateral stenosis, whereas ICAM-1 showed reversed relationships to these clinical variables. MCP-1 increased during surgery.

Conclusions: The main finding in our study is that MMP-9 in plasma is asscociated with radical production during carotid endarterectomy, suggesting that this enzyme might be involved in the pathogenesis of brain damage in conjunction with ischaemia-reperfusion.

Methods: Liver tissues from 47 patients consisted of 28 fulminant hepatitis and 19 biliary atresia were examined to detect B19 genes by PCR and further analyzed their genomic characterization.

Results: B19 DNA was detected by nested PCR in 10 of 28 cases (35.7%) livers in the fulminant hepatitis group and 7 of 19 (36.8%) livers in the biliary atresia group, respectively (statistically not significant). Importantly, among the 8 hepatic B19 DNA-positive patients who had paired samples of liver and serum, the serum B19 genome was detectable in only one case. B19 mRNA was identified in all of 10 fulminant hepatitis cases with hepatic B19 DNA, but only 1 out of 7 (14.3%) cases in biliary atresia tested. Furthermore, we obtained ten isolates having the B19 genome with nearly full-length sequences. Interestingly, phylogenetic analysis based on the NS1 gene revealed three different clusters: two for isolates from fulminant hepatitis and the other for isolates from biliary atresia.

Conclusions: Our results presented here suggested that B19 may be an etiologic agent of fulminant hepatitis.

Aims: The present research study examines a dietary supplement containing 445 mg of Phaseolus vulgaris extract derived from the white kidney bean, previously shown to inhibit the activity of the digestive enzyme alpha amylase, on body composition of overweight human subjects.

Methods: A randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study was conducted on 60 pre-selected, slightly overweight volunteers, whose weight had been essentially stable for at least six months. The volunteers were divided into two groups, homogeneous for age, gender, and body weight. The test product containing Phaseolus vulgaris extract and the placebo were taken one tablet per day for 30 consecutive days before a main meal rich in carbohydrates. Each subject's body weight, fat and non-fat mass, skin fold thickness, and waist/hip/thigh circumferences were measured.

Results: After 30 days, subjects receiving Phaseolus vulgaris extract with a carbohydrate-rich, 2000- to 2200-calorie diet had significantly (p<0.001) greater reduction of body weight, BMI, fat mass, adipose tissue thickness, and waist,/hip/ thigh circumferences while maintaining lean body mass compared to subjects receiving placebo.

Conclusion: The results indicate that Phaseolus vulgaris extract produces significant decrements in body weight and suggest decrements in fat mass in the face of maintained lean body mass.

Methods: A single nucleotide polymorphism at intron 2 of Gab1 (JST164345) was examined for 454 Japanese health checkup examinees (126 males and 328 females) aged 35 to 85 without a history of gastric cancer and 202 gastric cancer patients (134 males and 68 females) aged 33 to 94 with pathologically confirmed diagnosis of gastric adenocarcinoma.

Results: The decreased OR of the Gab1 A/A for H. pylori seropositivity was 0.25 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.08-0.71). Among seropositive healthy controls, the OR of the Gab1 G/A+A/A for gastric atrophy was significant (OR=1.95, 95% CI: 1.12 -3.40). Seropositive individuals with PTPN11 G/G and Gab1 G/A+A/A demonstrated the highest risk of gastric atrophy with significance (OR=3.49, 95% CI: 1.54-7.90) relative to PTPN11 G/A+A/A and Gab1 G/G, the lowest risk combination, as a reference. However, the gene-gene interaction between PTPN11 and Gab1 was not observed (OR=1.39, 95% CI: 0.41-4.66). Compared to gastric cancer case, the Gab1 did not influence the step of atrophy/metaplasia-gastric cancer sequence.

Conclusions: This study represents that the Gab1 polymorphism was associated with the low risk of H. pylori infection and the high risk of gastric atrophy among seropositive healthy controls, and that seropositive individuals with PTPN11 G/G and Gab1 G/A+G/G were associated with the greatest risk of gastric atrophy. These findings require confirmation in much larger studies.