Uric acid: an old actor for a new role

The role of uric acid as an independent risk factor for cardiovascular events is still debated. In fact, other confounding factors such as glucose intolerance, obesity, dyslipidaemia, hypertension, use of diuretics and insulin resistance may play a role in determining the increased vascular risk associated to elevated uric acid concentrations. These factors (including high uric acid) have been mentioned in one or more definitions of the metabolic syndrome. Recently, much attention has been paid to the metabolic syndrome due to its possible role as a risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The worldwide increase in the prevalence of obesity and diabetes is a reason not only for the increasing prevalence of the metabolic syndrome but also of hyperuricaemia. A better understanding of the role of uric acid in health and in disease states may help physicians to improve their performance in preventing and treating cardiovascular disease

Elasticity and Petri nets

Digital electronic systems typically use synchronous clocks and primarily assume fixed duration of their operations to simplify the design process. Time elastic systems can be constructed either by replacing the clock with communication handshakes (asynchronous version) or by augmenting the clock with a synchronous version of a handshake (synchronous version). Time elastic systems can tolerate static and dynamic changes in delays (asynchronous case) or latencies (synchronous case) of operations that can be used for modularity, ease of reuse and better power-delay trade-off. This paper describes methods for the modeling, performance analysis and optimization of elastic systems using Marked Graphs and their extensions capable of describing behavior with early evaluation. The paper uses synchronous elastic systems (aka latency-tolerant systems) for illustrating the use of Petri nets, however, most of the methods can be applied without changes (except changing the delay model associated with events of the system) to asynchronous elastic systems.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Relation between serum uric acid and carotid intima-media thickness in healthy postmenopausal women

OBJECTIVE: Serum uric acid (SUA) is associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD). However it is still disputed whether the relationship is mediated by other risk factors such as obesity, dyslipidaemia, hypertension and insulin resistance. We explored the association of the uric acid level with carotid intima-media thickness (IMT), a well known marker of CVD, in postmenopausal healthy women. METHODS: We consecutively enrolled postmenopausal women undergoing a screening for health evaluation. After an accurate clinical examination, and a biochemical evaluation, the enrolled subjects underwent B mode ultrasonography to assess common carotid intima media thickness. RESULTS: Among 234 women aged 45-70 years, the uric acid level is associated with carotid IMT independently of other prognostic factors (p=0.03). In particular, women in the highest tertiles of uric acid level have a greater IMT than women in the lowest tertile (p=0.007). CONCLUSIONS: Independently of other cardiovascular risk factors, SUA levels are associated with carotid IMT even in subjects without the metabolic syndrome. This confirms and expands the role of uric acid in the determinism of CVD. Prospective trials would be useful to evaluate interventions aimed at lowering the uric acid level