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Control Series (control + series)

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Medical Sciences	100%

Selected Abstracts

Impacts of federal precursor chemical regulations on methamphetamine arrests

ADDICTION, Issue 4 2005
James K. Cunningham
ABSTRACT Aims The US government regulated precursor chemicals, ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, multiple times to limit methamphetamine production/availability and thus methamphetamine problems. Research has found that the regulations reduced methamphetamine hospital admissions, but authors have argued that other problems were unaffected. This study examines whether the regulations impacted methamphetamine arrests. Design ARIMA-intervention time-series analysis with control series. Setting California (1982,2001). Measurements Dependent variable series: monthly methamphetamine arrests. Control series: monthly marijuana arrests and cocaine/heroin arrests. Interventions Bulk powder ephedrine and pseudoephedrine: regulated November 1989. Products containing ephedrine as the single active medicinal ingredient: regulated August 1995. Pseudoephedrine products: regulated October 1997. Large-scale producers used ephedrine and pseudoephedrine in these forms. Ephedrine combined with other active medicinal ingredients (e.g. various cold medicines),used mainly by small-scale producers: regulated October 1996. Findings The regulation targeting small-scale producers (1996) had no significant impact. In contrast, methamphetamine arrests stopped rising and dropped 31% to 45% each of the three times precursor chemicals used by large-scale producers were regulated. Within 3 years of the bulk powder regulation (1989) and again within 2 years of the ephedrine single ingredient regulation (1995), arrests fully rebounded. During the 4 years following the last regulation (pseudoephedrine products, 1997) arrests only partially rebounded. These effects parallel those reported on hospital admissions. The control series were generally unaffected. Conclusions Precursor regulations targeting large-scale producers impacted methamphetamine arrests, a criminal justice problem, much as they impacted the public health problem of methamphetamine hospital admissions. Ongoing research is needed to determine whether these problems eventually fully rebound from the last regulation. [source]

Calbindin-1 association and Parkinson's disease

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY, Issue 2 2010
A. I. Soto-Ortolaza
Background and purpose:, Calcium levels have been proposed to play an important role in the selective vulnerability of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons in Parkinson's disease (PD). Recently, an association was reported between the calcium buffer, calbindin (rs1805874) and risk of PD in a Japanese patient,control series. Methods:, We genotyped rs1805874 in four independent Caucasian patient,control series (1543 PD patients, 1771 controls). Results:, There was no evidence of an association between rs1805874 and disease risk in individual populations or in the combined series (odds ratio: 1.04, 95% CI: 0.82,1.31, P = 0.74). Discussion:, Our study shows there is no association between rs1805874 and risk for PD in four Caucasian populations. This suggests the effect of calbindin on PD risk displays population specificity. [source]

Association Between Migraine and Headache Attributed to Stroke: A Case,Control Study

HEADACHE, Issue 10 2008
Katiuscia Nardi MD
Background., Several studies were carried out to investigate the occurrence of headache attributed to acute stroke in patients with a lifetime history of migraine. Methods., In a case,control series of 96 acute stroke patients with a lifetime history of migraine (M+) and 96 stroke patients without (M,), ischemic stroke patients only, without secondary infarction, were selected. The headache attributed to acute ischemic stroke was then analyzed. Results., (M+) patients complained of headache more often than (M,) patients (P < .0001), mainly in the 24 hours before stroke onset (P < .0001). Migraine-like features of headache were recognized in a greater proportion of cases in the (M+) patient group with ischemic stroke (P < .018). A preferential brainstem location of ischemic stroke in (M+) patients emerged compared with (M,) patients (P = .014). Discussion., The high prevalence of headache attributed to stroke in (M+) patients, in a relevant proportion of cases presenting as a sentinel headache, suggests that cerebral ischemia lowers the threshold for head pain more easily in these "susceptible" patients. The most frequent involvement of the brainstem in (M+) patients with ischemic infarction concurs with recent reports that emphasized a greater headache frequency when cerebral infarctions are localized in this structure or deep brain gray matter. [source]

Genetic Determinants of Alcohol Addiction and Metabolism: A Survey in Italy

ALCOHOLISM, Issue 2 2001
Roberta Pastorelli
Background: Although multiple genes are involved in alcoholism and can contribute differently to the risk of dependence and liver damage, no studies have investigated susceptibility to addiction in combination with susceptibility to liver damage due to differences in ethanol metabolism. Methods: We evaluated the role of three polymorphic genes related to alcohol metabolism (CYP2E1) and, possibly, dependence (DRD2 and SLC6A4 promoter) in a series of 60 alcoholics admitted to a specialized referral center in Florence, Italy. Eighteen had a diagnosis of liver cirrhosis. A control series of 64 blood donors were identified at the same hospital. Genotyping was done by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism methods. Results: No difference was found in the frequency of the CYP2E 1 Rsa I c2 allele (2.5% among alcoholics and 4.7% among controls) and the Dra I C allele (6.7% and 10.1%). Similarly, no difference was found in the frequency of the DRD2 A1 allele (15.8% and 13.3%) and the B1 allele (10.8% and 8.6%). The proportion of controls with a combined B1 genotype (B1/B1 or B1/B2) was significantly associated with smoking (p= 0.03). The distribution of the S and L allele of the SLC6A4 gene was similar in the two groups, with 15% and 14%, respectively, homozygous S/S carriers. A significant association, however, emerged in the group of alcoholics, with a five times higher risk for S/S carriers of developing cirrhosis (p < 0.05). This association with liver persisted even after exclusion of the subgrouped of 10 hepatitis C virus positive alcoholics. Conclusions: Overall, our results provided no evidence of an increased susceptibility to develop alcoholism that was associated with the three genotypes investigated, either alone or in combination. An increased risk of developing liver cirrhosis for S/S homozygous carriers among alcohol-dependent patients was observed for the first time. [source]

Assessing the role of DRD5 and DYT1 in two different case,control series with primary blepharospasm

MOVEMENT DISORDERS, Issue 2 2007
Jordi Clarimon PhD
Abstract Primary blepharospasm is a common adult-onset focal dystonia. Polymorphisms of the genes encoding TorsinA (DYT1) and the D5 dopamine receptor (DRD5) have previously been associated with lifetime risk for focal dystonia. We describe here experiments testing common variability within these two genes in two independent cohorts of Italian and North American patients with primary blepharospasm. We have failed to identify a consistent association with disease in the two patient groups examined here; however, analysis of the Italian group reveals an association with the same risk genotype in DYT1 as previously described in an Icelandic population. We have also found global significant DYT1 haplotype differences between patients and controls in the Italian series. These data suggest that further examination is warranted of the role genetic variability at this locus plays in the risk for primary dystonia. © 2006 Movement Disorder Society [source]

The chromosome 7q region association with rheumatoid arthritis in females in a british population is not replicated in a North American case,control series

ARTHRITIS & RHEUMATISM, Issue 1 2009
Benjamin D. Korman
Objective The single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs11761231 on chromosome 7q has been reported to be sexually dimorphic marker for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) susceptibility in a British population. We sought to replicate this finding and to better characterize susceptibility alleles in the region in a North American population. Methods DNA from 2 North American collections of RA patients and controls (1,605 cases and 2,640 controls) was genotyped for rs11761231 and 16 additional chromosome 7q tag SNPs using Sequenom iPlex assays. Association tests were performed for each collection and also separately, contrasting male cases with male controls and female cases with female controls. Principal components analysis (EigenStrat) was used to determine association with RA before and after adjusting for population stratification in the subset of the samples for which there were whole-genome SNP data (772 cases and 1,213 controls). Results We failed to replicate an association of the 7q region with RA. Initially, rs11761231 showed evidence for association with RA in the North American Rheumatoid Arthritis Consortium (NARAC) collection (P = 0.0073), and rs11765576 showed association with RA in both the NARAC (P = 0.038) and RA replication (P = 0.0013) collections. These markers also exhibited sex differentiation. However, in the whole-genome subset, neither SNP showed significant association with RA after correction for population stratification. Conclusion While 2 SNPs on chromosome 7q appeared to be associated with RA in a North American cohort, the significance of this finding did not withstand correction for population substructure. Our results emphasize the need to carefully account for population structure to avoid false-positive disease associations. [source]

Propagation of Tears in Pericardium From Young Bulls: Influence of the Suture

ARTIFICIAL ORGANS, Issue 3 2010
José María García Páez
Abstract The tearing of the collagen fibers of biological materials utilized in implants or bioprostheses is an important, and sometimes early cause of the failure of these devices. We studied the force necessary to propagate a tear in a biomaterial, pericardium from young bulls, and the influence of the suture. An Elmendorf pendulum capable of measuring the force necessary to tear a given length of tissue was employed. We analyzed 112 trials (70%) that proved valid after achieving the homogeneity of the samples according to their thickness, thus making the results comparable. Mean forces ranging between 19.87 and 150 N were required to propagate tears measuring from 0.25 to 2.0 cm. In the samples with a 1-cm-long suture, sewn using an edge-to-edge technique, the propagation of the tear required a mean force of 15.75 N when the suture was made of nylon and 28.73 N when Prolene was utilized. When these results were compared with the mean recorded in an unsutured control series (56.76 N), the loss of resistance was significant in both sutured series (P = 0.000 and P = 0.011, respectively). Finally, the equation that relates the force (y) with the length of the tear made in unsutured tissue (x) was also obtained: y = 58.14 + 9.62x2 (R2 = 0.924). The force necessary to produce a microtear, thus estimated, can be utilized as a parameter for comparison. [source]