Smoking and other forms of tobacco use are major risk factors for cardiovascular disease. The effect of cigarette smoking on cardiovascular health is evident even at the lowest levels of exposure. Yet, the adverse effects of smoking are reversible, with cardiovascular risk decreasing substantially within the first 2 years of smoking cessation. Significantly, the mortality from coronary heart disea

BACKGROUND: Total plasma homocysteine (tHcy) concentration is elevated in elderly patients with mental illness, and patients with vascular disease have higher plasma tHcy concentration than patients without vascular disease. METHOD: We investigated the influence of cobalamin/folate status and renal function on the association between plasma tHcy levels and vascular disease. RESULTS: There was a si

Microwaves were for the first time produced by humans in 1886 when radio waves were broadcasted and received. Until then microwaves had only existed as a part of the cosmic background radiation since the birth of universe. By the following utilization of microwaves in telegraph communication, radars, television and above all, in the modern mobile phone technology, mankind is today exposed to micro

We have previously demonstrated that a topical microemulsion can attenuate symptoms and signs of seasonal allergic rhinitis. This likely reflects that the microemulsion interferes with the interaction between the allergen and the mucosa. Whether or not the finding translates to conditions caused by other inhaled agents such as house dust mite allergen is unknown. Patients with perennial allergic r

To review the ethical and regulatory issues related to the research on human-animal entities at various stages. Review of scientific publications, laws and ethical guidelines in this field up through September 2008. The article presents the overall picture of the research on human-animal entities in Europe, including the public opinion and the country-specific regulations and guidelines regarding

Telomere length alterations are known to cause genomic instability and influence clinical course in several tumor types, but have been little investigated in neuroblastoma (NB), one of the most common childhood tumors. In the present study, telomere-dependent chromosomal instability and telomere length were determined in six NB cell lines and fifty tumor biopsies. The alternative lengthening of te

Around 20percent of the patients with severe hemophilia develop inhibitory antibodies against the factor they lack. In these patients the administration of FVIII/FIX-concentrates are not hemostatically effective. Since FVIIa is not enzymatically active unless complexed with tissue factor (TF) exposed following an injury to the vessel wall, it was considered an attractive candidate for improved tre

The aim of this study was to ascertain experiences and perceptions among physiotherapists (PTs) in Sweden regarding the concept of work ability as well as their perspectives of their professional role in work ability assessments. We conducted an in-depth interview study with four male and twelve female physiotherapists working in the field of occupational health care, orthopaedics, primary health

BACKGROUND: Endorsed by the Outcome MEasures in Rheumatoid Arthritis in Clinical Trials (OMERACT) group, The Effective Consumer Scale (EC-17) was developed in English for patients with musculoskeletal diseases to assess the skills and perceptions important for participating in and managing health care. The objective of this study was culturally to adapt the questionnaire into Swedish and to study

Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) are widely used to deliver macromolecular cargoes to intracellular sites of action. Many CPPs have been demonstrated to rely on cell surface heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) for efficient cellular entry and delivery. In this chapter, we describe methods for the study of PG involvement in CPP uptake. We provide descriptions of how to determine whether uptake of

The four visual sensory structures of a cubomedusa, the rhopalia, display a surprisingly elaborate organization by containing two lens eyes and four bilaterally paired pigment cup eyes. Peptides containing the peptide sequence Arg-Phe-NH2 (RFamide) occur in close association with visual structures of cnidarians, including the rhopalia and rhopalial stalk of cubomedusae, suggesting that RFamide fun

Cognitive ability measured via an IQ-test (intelligence quotient) has been associated with cardiovascular (CVD) incidence. Whether cognitive ability is associated with risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) is unknown. The present nationwide co-relative study aims to determine whether cognitive ability in male conscripts is a predictor of VTE.

AIM OF THE STUDY: To analyse the neurological status of survivors after cardiac arrest (CA) treated with hypothermia. METHODS: We prospectively included all patients with CA treated with hypothermia at intensive care units (ICU) in two university hospitals and one regional hospital. All adult survivors at 6 months after CA, n=48, were invited for neurological follow-up and 43 accepted. History, cl

OBJECTIVES: The platelet ADP P2Y(12) receptor which is a target for the antithrombotic drug clopidogrel is also distributed on vascular smooth muscle cells and stimulate contraction. This study investigates whether AZD6140, in contrast to clopidogrel, can inhibit ADP-mediated arterial contractions. METHODS: Mice were treated with clopidogrel, 50 mg/kg, 24 and 2 h before experiment. Thoracic aorta

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: The metabolic syndrome is a cluster of factors contributing to increased risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes but unifying mechanisms have not been identified. Our aim was to study whether common variations in 17 genes previously associated with type 2 diabetes or components of the metabolic syndrome and variants in nine genes with inconsistent association with at le

We consider hardware-oriented message authentication, more specifically universal hash functions. We propose a new type of constructions that appear promising. These constructions are based on the framework of universal hash functions, Toeplitz matrices and epsilon-biased sample spaces. Some new theoretical results in this area are derived. The new constructions come at the price of not being able

Unique, gene-specific oligonucleotides are used for many genetic investigations such as polymerase chain reaction, gene cloning, microarray technology and antisense DNA studies. It is a computationally demanding task to extract these oligonucleotides from DNA databases. We studied the problem from the point of view of the string matching problem. We implemented and tested several exact string matc

To develop interactional ability, conversation with both peers and adults is vital. However, for children with physical impairments, like cerebral palsy, interactions with adults often dominate. In this study, interaction between eight Swedish children with cerebral palsy, mean age 8.6 years, and their physiotherapists (PTs) and speech-language therapists (SLTs) was analysed during intervention ac