Cardiovascular Comorbidities in Patients with Psoriasis: Risk Profile Including Carotide Ultrasonography Assessed in Hospital-based Case Control Study

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory disease and its comorbidities have attracted serious interest in recent years. The evidence that psoriasis is associated with systemic inflammation and significantly higher incidence of cardiovascular risk factors was already described. The results of published studies are highly variable, the conclusions are ambiguous and further epidemiological studies are needed for validation of published data. Therefore, we initiated a project aimed at identifying the carriership of cardiovascular risk factors including early stages of atherosclerosis that represent important comorbidities in patients with psoriasis. We carried out a hospital-based case-control study. 189 patients with chronic plaque psoriasis were enrolled as cases. The group consisted of 378 patients with other skin diseases complying with the same restriction criteria were recruited to the study as the controls. All participants underwent physical examination, blood tests, measuring of blood pressure, waist circumference. Furthermore, in the subset of 117 cases and controls (matched 1:2) with no history of cardiovascular disease we evaluated the intima-media thickness (cIMT). The results show higher prevalence of hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, waist circumference, weight, BMI and CRP level in patients with psoriasis than in controls. These parameters have been clearly demonstrated as risk factors for the development of cardiovascular diseases. The associations among psoriasis and diastolic blood pressure, BMI value and LDL cholesterol are statistically significant in the binary data logistic model as well. cIMT in patients  compared to controls was not significant.</p

Cardiovascular Comorbidities in Patients with Psoriasis: Risk Profile Including Carotide Ultrasonography Assessed in Hospital-based Case Control Study

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory disease and its comorbidities have attracted serious interest in recent years. The evidence that psoriasis is associated with systemic inflammation and significantly higher incidence of cardiovascular risk factors was already described. The results of published studies are highly variable, the conclusions are ambiguous and further epidemiological studies are needed for validation of published data. Therefore, we initiated a project aimed at identifying the carriership of cardiovascular risk factors including early stages of atherosclerosis that represent important comorbidities in patients with psoriasis. We carried out a hospital-based case-control study. 189 patients with chronic plaque psoriasis were enrolled as cases. The group consisted of 378 patients with other skin diseases complying with the same restriction criteria were recruited to the study as the controls. All participants underwent physical examination, blood tests, measuring of blood pressure, waist circumference. Furthermore, in the subset of 117 cases and controls (matched 1:2) with no history of cardiovascular disease we evaluated the intima-media thickness (cIMT). The results show higher prevalence of hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, waist circumference, weight, BMI and CRP level in patients with psoriasis than in controls. These parameters have been clearly demonstrated as risk factors for the development of cardiovascular diseases. The associations among psoriasis and diastolic blood pressure, BMI value and LDL cholesterol are statistically significant in the binary data logistic model as well. cIMT in patients  compared to controls was not significant.</p

Development and analysis of the Soil Water Infiltration Global database

In this paper, we present and analyze a novel global database of soil infiltration measurements, the Soil Water Infiltration Global (SWIG) database. In total, 5023 infiltration curves were collected across all continents in the SWIG database. These data were either provided and quality checked by the scientists who performed the experiments or they were digitized from published articles. Data from 54 different countries were included in the database with major contributions from Iran, China, and the USA. In addition to its extensive geographical coverage, the collected infiltration curves cover research from 1976 to late 2017. Basic information on measurement location and method, soil properties, and land use was gathered along with the infiltration data, making the database valuable for the development of pedotransfer functions (PTFs) for estimating soil hydraulic properties, for the evaluation of infiltration measurement methods, and for developing and validating infiltration models. Soil textural information (clay, silt, and sand content) is available for 3842 out of 5023 infiltration measurements ( ∼ 76%) covering nearly all soil USDA textural classes except for the sandy clay and silt classes. Information on land use is available for 76% of the experimental sites with agricultural land use as the dominant type ( ∼ 40%). We are convinced that the SWIG database will allow for a better parameterization of the infiltration process in land surface models and for testing infiltration models. All collected data and related soil characteristics are provided online in *.xlsx and *.csv formats for reference, and we add a disclaimer that the database is for public domain use only and can be copied freely by referencing it. Supplementary data are available at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.885492 (Rahmati et al., 2018). Data quality assessment is strongly advised prior to any use of this database. Finally, we would like to encourage scientists to extend and update the SWIG database by uploading new data to it

Karcinom rekta. Srovnani endorektalni ultrasonografie a vypocetni tomografie v hodnoceni lokalniho rozsahu nadoru.

Available from STL Prague, CZ / NTK - National Technical LibrarySIGLECZCzech Republi

Interpretation of ponded infiltration data using numerical experiments

Ponded infiltration experiment is a simple test used for in-situ determination of soil hydraulic properties, particularly saturated hydraulic conductivity and sorptivity. It is known that infiltration process in natural soils is strongly affected by presence of macropores, soil layering, initial and experimental conditions etc. As a result, infiltration record encompasses a complex of mutually compensating effects that are difficult to separate from each other. Determination of sorptivity and saturated hydraulic conductivity from such infiltration data is complicated. In the present study we use numerical simulation to examine the impact of selected experimental conditions and soil profile properties on the ponded infiltration experiment results, specifically in terms of the hydraulic conductivity and sorptivity evaluation. The effect of following factors was considered: depth of ponding, ring insertion depth, initial soil water content, presence of preferential pathways, hydraulic conductivity anisotropy, soil layering, surface layer retention capacity and hydraulic conductivity, and presence of soil pipes or stones under the infiltration ring. Results were compared with a large database of infiltration curves measured at the experimental site Liz (Bohemian Forest, Czech Republic). Reasonably good agreement between simulated and observed infiltration curves was achieved by combining several of factors tested. Moreover, the ring insertion effect was recognized as one of the major causes of uncertainty in the determination of soil hydraulic parameters

Episodic runoff generation at Central European headwater catchments studied using water isotope concentration signals

Hydrological monitoring in small headwater catchments provides the basis for examining complex interrelating hydraulic processes that govern the runoff generation. Contributions of different subsurface runoff mechanisms to the catchment discharge formation at two small forested headwater catchments are studied with the help of their natural isotopic signatures. The Uhlirska catchment (Jizera Mts., Czech Republic) is situated in headwater area of the Lusatian Neisse River. The catchment includes wetlands at the valley bottom developed over deluviofluvial granitic sediments surrounded by gentle hillslopes with shallow soils underlain by weathered granite. The Liz catchment (Bohemian Forest, Czech Republic) is situated in headwater area of the Otava River. It belongs to hillslope-type catchments with narrow riparian zones. The soil at Liz is developed on biotite paragneiss bedrock. The basic comparison of hydrological time series reveals that the event-related stream discharge variations at the Uhlirska catchment are bigger and significantly more frequent than at Liz. The analysis of isotope concentration data revealed different behavior of the two catchments during the major rainfall-runoff events. At Uhlirska, the percentage of the direct runoff formed by the event water reaches its maximum on the falling limb of the hydrograph. At Liz, the event water related fraction of the direct outflow is maximal on the rising limb of the hydrograph and then lowers. The hydraulic functioning of the Uhlirska catchment is determined by communication between hillslope and riparian zone compartments