Disentangling coordination and alloy effects in transition metal nanoalloys from their electronic structure

International audienc

Carotid intima-media thickness better differentiates between groups of stroke patients and persons without cerebrovascular disease than other conventional and novel risk factors

When measured by ultrasound, the morphological markers of carotid atherosclerosis such as intima-media thickness (IMT) and cross-sectional plaque area have been associated with the risk of ischaemic stroke. We set out to determine whether the morphological parameters of the carotid arteries made it possible to better differentiate between groups of older atherothrombotic stroke patients and persons without cerebrovascular disease than conventional and novel risk factors of stroke. Of the total number of 623 persons examined, 54 stroke patients (mean age 63.3 years) and 74 controls without cerebrovascular disease (mean age 66.3 years) fulfilled the inclusion criteria for this investigation and were enrolled in the case-control study. After adjustment for age, gender and education level, the strongest associations were found between stroke and carotid IMT [odds ratio (OR) = 10.6; 95% confidence interval (CI): 4.3–26.9] and plaque area (OR = 5.4; 95%CI: 2.3–13.1). Other risk factors showed weaker associations with stroke occurrence. Of the clinical risk factors, a significant association was found between stroke and coronary heart disease (OR = 3.5; 95%CI: 1.2–10.2), hypertension (OR = 3.2; 95%CI: 1.5–7.2) and smoking (OR = 2.7; 95%CI: 1.1–6.4). From the laboratory-derived risk factors a significant association was found between stroke and triglyceride levels (OR = 4.4; 95%CI: 1.9–10.0), and an inverse correlation was observed between stroke occurrence and HDL-cholesterol level (OR = 0.4; 95%CI: 0.2–0.8). The carotid IMT and plaque area, measured with the use of ultrasonography, showed a better correlation with stroke occurrence than currently recognised clinical and biochemical risk factors. The intima-media thickness and plaque area of the carotid arteries could be useful parameters in the development of strategies to identify patients at high risk of atherothrombotic ischaemic stroke

Joint Metabonomic and Instrumental Analysis for the Classification of Migraine Patients with 677-MTHFR Mutations

Migraine is a neurological disorder that correlates with an increased risk of cerebrovascular lesions. Genetic mutations of the MTHFR gene are correlated to migraine and to the increased risk of artery pathologies. Also, migraine patients show altered hematochemical parameters, linked to an impaired platelet aggregation mechanism. Hence, the vascular assessment of migraineurs is of primary importance

Analysis of the impact of sex and age on the variation in the prevalence of antinuclear autoantibodies in Polish population: a nationwide observational, cross-sectional study

The detection of antinuclear autoantibody (ANA) is dependent on many factors and varies between the populations. The aim of the study was first to assess the prevalence of ANA in the Polish adult population depending on age, sex and the cutoff threshold used for the results obtained. Second, we estimated the occurrence of individual types of ANA-staining patterns. We tested 1731 patient samples using commercially available IIFA using two cutoff thresholds of 1:100 and 1:160. We found ANA in 260 participants (15.0%), but the percentage of positive results strongly depended on the cutoff level. For a cutoff threshold 1:100, the positive population was 19.5% and for the 1:160 cutoff threshold, it was 11.7%. The most prevalent ANA-staining pattern was AC-2 Dense Fine speckled (50%), followed by AC-21 Reticular/AMA (14.38%) ANA more common in women (72%); 64% of ANA-positive patients were over 50 years of age. ANA prevalence in the Polish population is at a level observed in other highly developed countries and is more prevalent in women and elderly individuals. To reduce the number of positive results released, we suggest that Polish laboratories should set 1:160 as the cutoff threshold

Simulation of the Tracer Diffusion, Bulk Ordering, and Surface Reordering in F.C.C. Structures by Kinetic Mean-Field Method

Tracer diffusion and ‘chemical’ (atomic) ordering processes in two face-centred cubic (f.c.c.) binary systems mimicking Ni3Al and FePt were simulated by means of the kinetic mean-field (KMF) method originally proposed by G. Martin in 1990.В роботі розглядається моделювання дифузії значених атомів і процесу «хемічного» (атомового) впорядкування в двох бінарних системах з гранецентрованою кубічною (ГЦК) структурою Ni3Al та FePt із використанням середньопольової кінетичної методи (KMF), запропонованої Ж. Мартаном у 1990 р.В работе рассматривается диффузия меченых атомов и процесс «химического» (атомного) упорядочения в двух бинарных системах с гранецентрированной кубической (ГЦК) структурой Ni3Al и FePt с использованием среднеполевого кинетического метода (KMF), предложенного Ж. Мартаном в 1990 г