Epidemiology of Hyperhidrosis in Danish Blood Donors

The risk factors and disease implications of hyperhidrosis are unknown. The objectives of this retrospective cohort study were to estimate the prevalence of hyperhidrosis and to compare demographic, lifestyle, and socioeconomic parameters in blood donors with and without self-reported or hospital-diagnosed hyperhidrosis. The study included blood donors from the Danish Blood Donor Study for the period 2010–2019. Registry data were collected from Statistics Denmark. Overall, 2,794 of 30,808 blood donors (9.07%; 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 8.75–9.40) had self-reported hyperhidrosis and 284 of 122,225 (0.23%; 95% CI 0.21–0.26) had hospital-diagnosed hyperhidrosis. Self-reported hyperhidrosis was associated with smoking (odds ratio (OR) 1.17; 95% CI 1.05– 1.31), overweight (OR 1.72; 95% CI 1.58–1.87), “unemployed” (OR 1.60; 95% CI 1.24–2.08), “short education” (OR 0.76; 95% CI 0.64–0.90), and lower income (beta-coefficient –26,121; 95% CI –37,931, –14,311). Hospital-diagnosed hyperhidrosis did not differ from controls. Thus, self-reported hyperhidrosis was associated with potential hyperhidrosis risk factors (smoking, overweight) and disease implications (unemployment, low education level and income)

Restless legs syndrome is associated with major comorbidities in a population of Danish blood donors.

BACKGROUND: Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) is characterized by uncomfortable nocturnal sensations in the legs making sedentary activities and sleep difficult, and is thus linked with psychosocial distress. Due to the symptomatology and neurobiology of RLS (disrupting brain iron and dopamine) it is likely that RLS associates with poorer health-related quality of life (HRQL) and depressive disorder. The objective of this study was to investigate the RLS-HRQL and the RLS-depressive disorder links in a generally healthy population that is not biased by medications. METHODS: Complete data, including the Cambridge-Hopkins RLS questionnaire, the 12-item short-form standardized health survey (SF-12), the Major Depression Inventory (MDI), body mass index, smoking status, alcohol consumption, and education were available for 24,707 participants enrolled in the Danish Blood Donor Study from May 1, 2015 to February 1, 2017. Information on quality of sleep was available for all RLS cases. T-tests and multivariable logistic regression models were applied to examine the associations of RLS and MDI scores, and the physical and mental component scores (PCS and MCS) of SF-12, respectively. Analyses were conducted separately for men and women. RESULTS: RLS associated with poorer MCS and poorer PCS. Moreover, Participants with RLS were more likely to classify with depressive disorder. Poor quality of sleep was associated with depressive disorder and poorer MCS among RLS cases, and with poorer PCS in female RLS cases. CONCLUSION: Thus, we demonstrated that RLS is associated with a significantly lower HRQL and a higher prevalence of depressive disorder among otherwise healthy individuals

Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery of morbidly obese patients induces swift and persistent changes of the individual gut microbiota

BACKGROUND: Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) is an effective means to achieve sustained weight loss for morbidly obese individuals. Besides rapid weight reduction, patients achieve major improvements of insulin sensitivity and glucose homeostasis. Dysbiosis of gut microbiota has been associated with obesity and some of its co-morbidities, like type 2 diabetes, and major changes of gut microbial communities have been hypothesized to mediate part of the beneficial metabolic effects observed after RYGB. Here we describe changes in gut microbial taxonomic composition and functional potential following RYGB. METHODS: We recruited 13 morbidly obese patients who underwent RYGB, carefully phenotyped them, and had their gut microbiomes quantified before (n = 13) and 3 months (n = 12) and 12 months (n = 8) after RYGB. Following shotgun metagenomic sequencing of the fecal microbial DNA purified from stools, we characterized the gut microbial composition at species and gene levels followed by functional annotation. RESULTS: In parallel with the weight loss and metabolic improvements, gut microbial diversity increased within the first 3 months after RYGB and remained high 1 year later. RYGB led to altered relative abundances of 31 species (P < 0.05, q < 0.15) within the first 3 months, including those of Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Veillonella spp., Streptococcus spp., Alistipes spp., and Akkermansia muciniphila. Sixteen of these species maintained their altered relative abundances during the following 9 months. Interestingly, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii was the only species that decreased in relative abundance. Fifty-three microbial functional modules increased their relative abundance between baseline and 3 months (P < 0.05, q < 0.17). These functional changes included increased potential (i) to assimilate multiple energy sources using transporters and phosphotransferase systems, (ii) to use aerobic respiration, (iii) to shift from protein degradation to putrefaction, and (iv) to use amino acids and fatty acids as energy sources. CONCLUSIONS: Within 3 months after morbidly obese individuals had undergone RYGB, their gut microbiota featured an increased diversity, an altered composition, an increased potential for oxygen tolerance, and an increased potential for microbial utilization of macro- and micro-nutrients. These changes were maintained for the first year post-RYGB. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Current controlled trials (ID NCT00810823, NCT01579981, and NCT01993511). ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13073-016-0312-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Patient-Derived Organoids from Multiple Colorectal Cancer Liver Metastases Reveal Moderate Intra-patient Pharmacotranscriptomic Heterogeneity

Peer reviewe

Rare variants with large effects provide functional insights into the pathology of migraine subtypes, with and without aura

Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s).Migraine is a complex neurovascular disease with a range of severity and symptoms, yet mostly studied as one phenotype in genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Here we combine large GWAS datasets from six European populations to study the main migraine subtypes, migraine with aura (MA) and migraine without aura (MO). We identified four new MA-associated variants (in PRRT2, PALMD, ABO and LRRK2) and classified 13 MO-associated variants. Rare variants with large effects highlight three genes. A rare frameshift variant in brain-expressed PRRT2 confers large risk of MA and epilepsy, but not MO. A burden test of rare loss-of-function variants in SCN11A, encoding a neuron-expressed sodium channel with a key role in pain sensation, shows strong protection against migraine. Finally, a rare variant with cis-regulatory effects on KCNK5 confers large protection against migraine and brain aneurysms. Our findings offer new insights with therapeutic potential into the complex biology of migraine and its subtypes.Peer reviewe

Etnisk mangfold i arbeidslivet - Praksis og tiltak

Den overordnede problemstillingen for denne studien er ”Hva kjennetegner holdninger til og arbeidet med etnisk mangfold, i organisasjoner som har blitt tildelt Regjeringens Mangfoldspris?”. For å besvare problemstillingen har vi utarbeidet følgende forskningsspørsmål: 1. Hva kjennetegner holdningene til etnisk mangfold blant informanter i organisasjoner som har blitt tildelt Regjeringens Mangfoldspris? 2. Hva vektlegges ved seleksjon og hvordan er dette med på å fremme rekruttering av kandidater med etnisk minoritetsbakgrunn? 3. Hvordan arbeides det for å skape etnisk mangfold i lederstillinger? 4. Hvordan gjenspeiles arbeidet med etnisk mangfold i praksis? Vi har benyttet fenomenologisk forskningsdesign og har med kvalitativ forskningsmetode gjennomført seks semi-strukturerte dybdeintervjuer. Utvalget består av informanter fra to organisasjoner som har blitt tildelt Regjeringens Mangfoldspris; IKEA og SINTEF. I studien kom vi frem til at informantenes holdninger er utelukkende positive, men de er ikke så sterke som antatt. I en mangfoldsfremmende kontekst er det viktigst at holdningen til etnisk mangfold ikke er negativ da dette er en hemmende faktor. Norskkunnskaper er et viktig ansettelseskriterium når de ansatte har mye kontakt med kunder, men et slikt språkkrav er ikke særlig hemmende for rekruttering av mennesker med minoritetsbakgrunn generelt. Kompetansekrav, verdibasert seleksjon eller andre forutbestemte ansettelseskriterier anses å være en mangfoldsfremmende faktor. Dette er fordi det bidrar til å gjøre rekrutteringsprosessen mer objektiv. Videre fant vi ut at begge organisasjoner utvikler egne ledere og har stort mangfold på alle ledernivåer, unntatt topplederstillinger. Dette er et mål å få til på sikt, men det er få søkere med minoritetsbakgrunn og organisasjonene har ikke vært flinke nok når det gjelder å utvikle talenter med minoritetsbakgrunn. Til slutt kom vi frem til at forskjellige mangfoldsfremmende tiltak har ulik påvirkning på organisasjonens etniske mangfold, og viser alt fra enkle mangfoldsfremmende tiltak til mer omfattende og strukturerte tiltak. Dette er fremstilt i en oversiktlig figur i kapittel 5.4