Autopsy of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in the young shows a structurally and histologically normal heart in about one third of cases. Sudden death in these cases is believed to be attributed in a high percentage to inherited arrhythmogenic diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate the value of performing post-mortem genetic analysis for autopsy-negative sudden unexplained death (SUD) i

Background: Lithuanian primary health care (PHC) is undergoing changes from the systems prevalent under the Soviet Union, which ensured free access to specialised health care. Currently four different PHC models work in parallel, which offers the opportunity to study their respective effect on referral rates. Our aim was to investigate whether there were differences in referrals rates from differe

Several studies on the use of erythropoietin (Epo) to treat anaemia in patients undergoing cancer treatment have shown adverse effects on tumour control and survival. Experimental studies indicate that this could be linked to an interaction with wound healing processes and not an effect on tumour cells per se. We have previously shown that erythropoietin in combination with surgical trauma stimula

Most emission spectra are characterized by lines of various intensities, a feature making them difficult to probe in their entirety - the limited dynamic range of the detector prohibits the simultaneous observation of both weak and intense spectral features. A further known complication in spectroscopy concerns the generation and detection of stray light, which is an undesired contribution of ligh

To better understand and predict the combustion behavior of methanol in engines, sound knowledge of the effect of the pressure, unburned mixture temperature, and composition on the laminar burning velocity is required. Because many of the existing experimental data for this property are compromised by the effects of flame stretch and instabilities, this study was aimed at obtaining new, accurate d

Popular Abstract in Swedish De manliga könshormonerna, sk. androgener, spelar en nyckelroll under foster-utvecklingen av de manliga inre (t ex. blåshalskörtel/prostata) och yttre (t ex. penis) könsorganen. Androgenerna stimulerar även tillväxten av desamma under puberteten samt upprätthåller de manliga kroppsegenskaperna under vuxenlivet. De två huvudsakliga androgenerna är testosteron (T) samt 5αAndrogen action plays a pivotal role in male reproductive tract physiology and pathology. The androgen receptor (AR) gene harbors two codon repeat tracts: the CAG and GGN repeats, encoding corresponding amino acid sequences of variable length; the polyglutamine and polyglycine stretches, respectively. Variation in CAG repeat length had been associated with a number of andrological disorders, where

We present a novel algorithm combined with computational modeling to simulate the development of knee osteoarthritis. The degeneration algorithm was based on excessive and cumulatively accumulated stresses within knee joint cartilage during physiological gait loading. In the algorithm, the collagen network stiffness of cartilage was reduced iteratively if excessive maximum principal stresses were

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the distribution of the transient receptor potential (TRP) A1 ion channel in the rat urinary bladder, and to study the effects of hydrogen sulfide (H(2)S) and known TRPA1 activators on micturition in conscious rats and on heterologously expressed ion channels. METHODS: The expression of TRPA1 in urinary bladder was studied with fluorescence immunohistochemistry and real-

The quantitative relationship between exposure to physical risk factors and upper extremity work-related musculoskeletal disorders (UE-WMSDs) is virtually unknown. To explore the variation, objective measurements were derived in 43 types of work (686 individuals), using goniometry for the wrists and electromyography (EMG) for the forearm extensor muscles. The variations due to work were great for

Previous studies on the evaluation of irritant species from burning cables in a modified prEN 50399 fire test produced FEC/FED values based on ISO TS 13571. However, the ISO standard mentions in its scope that these indices can only be used within e.g. modelling. For this reason Europacable (ECBL) initiated a preliminary case-study to asses the possibility of using modern fire safety engineering t

Agricultural fertilisation increases crop yields but can cause environmental damage, thus reductions in inorganic fertiliser application have been advocated. Farmer usage of phosphate rock has declined over the last decade, which may lead to soil nutrient depletion that undermines future crop production. We investigated the long-term (55 years) effects of eight different inorganic fertiliser regim

L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia (LID) in Parkinson's disease has been linked to altered dopamine and glutamate transmission within the basal ganglia. In the present study, we compared compounds targeting specific subtypes of glutamate receptors or calcium channels for their ability to attenuate LID and the associated activation of striatal nuclear signalling and gene expression in the rat. Rats with 6-h

We present analysis and preliminary laboratory testing of a real-time dual-conjugate adaptive optics (DCAO) instrument for ophthalmology that will enable wide-field high resolution imaging of the retina in vivo. The setup comprises five retinal guide stars (GS) and two deformable mirrors (DM), one conjugate to the pupil and one conjugate to a plane close to the retina. The DCAO instrument has a cl

Dilution of flames using recirculated exhaust gas or water vapor is an important NOx reduction technique in various combustion applications. Dilution, however, can also lead to combustion instabilities due to reduced burning velocities. For methanol/air flames this subject is largely unexplored. Therefore, the current work examines the effects of diluting methanol/air flames with nitrogen and wate

Popular Abstract in Swedish Hjärt och kärlsjukdomar utgör idag den vanligaste orsaken till död världen över. I denna avhandling studerades patienter med hjärt-kärlsjukdom inom svenska register för att analysera betydelsen av olika komponenter av behandlingen vid hjärt-kärlsjukdom. Komponenter som utvärderades var tid till primär perkutan (endovaskulär) kranskärlsintervention (PCI), dvs ballongvidgIntroduction: Ischemic heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. The aims of this thesis were to evaluate different contemporary approaches in coronary care with regard to mortality and myocardial infarction. Methods: The thesis consists of 6 papers with 4 papers evaluating different exposures and their outcomes (clopidogrel pre-treatment, 5 different anti-platelet protocols, ticagrel

A previous investigation of all 10 TLR-genes for associations with allergic rhinitis (AR) detected a number of significant SNPs in the TLR8 locus. The associations indicated that an accumulation of rare variants could explain the signal. The present study therefore searches for rare variants in the TLR8 region and also investigates the reproducibility of previous SNP associations.

A pollen record obtained from a 2.2-m sediment succession deposited in a small lake in the province of Vasterbotten, north-eastern Sweden, reveals the presence of continuous forest cover since 8,500 calendar years before present (cal B.P.). Forest with abundant Pinus (pine) and Betula (birch) initially colonized the area, followed by a dominance of deciduous trees, primarily Betula, from ca. 8,000

AIMS: Liver is a target organ in many mitochondrial disorders, especially if the complex III assembly factor BCS1L is mutated. To reveal disease mechanism due to such mutations, we have produced a transgenic mouse model with c.232A>G mutation in Bcs1l, the causative mutation for GRACILE syndrome. The homozygous mice develop mitochondrial hepatopathy with steatosis and fibrosis after weaning. Our a