Regional sex-specific rates of a rare disease often show conspicuous fluctuations over conventional strata of age and calendar time. In a cohort study, when such rates are used as references in the calculation of the expected number of cases, the accumulated person-time of the study cohort may somewhat haphazardly contribute to the result. For example, only the person-time observed in the strata w

OBJECTIVE: Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) is essential for the pubertal growth spurt and for normal mammary gland development. IGF-1 increases premenopausal breast cancer risk. Oral contraceptives (OCs) decrease IGF-1 in most women. The endogenous estrogens and their metabolites also influence IGF-1 levels. Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) are involved in estrogen metabolism. We aimed to st

Many solid tumors exhibit characteristic gene fusions, which are reflected by balanced translocations at the cytogenetic level. These changes might be useful diagnostic and prognostic tools. In Wilms tumor (WT, nephroblastoma) no fusions genes or recurrent balanced translocations have been described thus far. To screen for cryptic balanced translocations, we have analyzed 17 renal neoplasms, histo

BACKGROUND:: The differentiation between a giant fibroadenoma and a phyllodes tumor can be a precarious diagnostic task. However, the distinction between the 2 lesions is important to make, especially since the latter can be malignant and consequently the prognoses differ. PROCEDURE:: We used various genetic approaches to study a breast tumor showing features of both entities in a 10-year-old girl

In the 1990s, cultural analyses have become an integrated part of urban theory, and culture is often seen as an important factor in the interpretation of both the structural changes of society and the multiplicity of life forms. But culture is not only used as a means to understand actual changes; equally often it is used as a tool to create changes. Under the headings of culture and space, cultur

OBJECTIVE: Neutrophil infiltration is a key regulator in the pathophysiology of acute pancreatitis (AP), although the impact of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) in AP remains elusive. The aim of this study was to define the role of TLR2 and TLR4 in leukocyte recruitment and tissue damage in severe AP. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: AP was induced by retrograde infusion of sodium taurocholate into the pancreatic d

Patients with rheumatic disorders have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). This excess co-morbidity is not fully explained by traditional risk factors. Disease severity is a major risk factor for CVD in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Shared disease mechanisms in atherosclerosis and rheumatic disorders include immune dysregulation and

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Recent reports have suggested that genotypes at the FTO locus interact with physical activity to modify levels of obesity-related traits. We tested this hypothesis in two non-diabetic population-based cohorts, the first from southern Sweden and the second from the Botnia region of western Finland. METHODS: In total 2,511 Finnish and 15,925 Swedish non-diabetic middle-aged adults w

Several Locus-Specific DataBases (LSDBs) have recently been approached by larger, more general data repositories (including NCBI and UCSC) with the request to share the DNA variant data they have collected. Within the Human Genome Variation Society (HGVS) a document was generated summarizing the issues related to these requests. The document has been circulated in the HGVS/LSDB community and was d

The effects on moral reasoning of gender, time pressure and seriousness of the issue at hand were investigated. In Experiment 1, 72 university students were presented with moral dilemmas and asked what actions the actors involved should take and to justify this. Women were found to be more care-oriented in their reasoning than men, supporting Gilligan’s (1982) moral judgment model. Both time press

Almost all parents in Sweden are invited to parental groups organized by the child health service (CHS) during their child's first year, but only 40% chose to attend. The aim of this study was to describe parents' experiences of participating in these parental groups. A total of 143 parents from 71 different parental groups at 27 child health-care (CHC) centres in one Swedish county completed an o

In proteomics, rapid developments in instrumentation led to the acquisition of increasingly large data sets. Correspondingly, ProDaC was founded in 2006 as a Coordination Action project within the 6th European Union Framework Programme to support data sharing and community-wide data collection. The objectives of ProDaC were the development of documentation and storage standards, setup of a standar

The relationship of visual P3a and P3b to age and neuropsychological performance was investigated in 26 healthy children (6.8–15.8 years) and 129 adult volunteers (20.0–88.8 years).Within the sample of children, an effect of age on midline topography was observed, with higher frontal amplitudes in the youngest compared to the oldest children. Increasing age was associated with lower P3a and P3b am

BACKGROUND: The increasing need for long-term care as well as diminished financial resources may compromise the quality of care of older people. Thus the need for clinically based quality of care monitoring to guide development of long-term services has been pointed out. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate trends in quality of care during 2003-2009 as reflected in the Minimum

BACKGROUND: Clinical studies have suggested that the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-inhibiting antibody cetuximab may have better effect in the third-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer, after failure of standard chemotherapy including oxaliplatin, compared to using it up-front in the first line. The reason behind this suggestion is unclear. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The effect o