The effect of body mass index and fasting glucose on the relationship between blood pressure and incident diabetes mellitus: a 5-year follow-up study

There is no consensus on the relationship between high blood pressure (BP) and incident diabetes mellitus (DM). Therefore, the aim of the current study was to investigate the independent association between BP and incident DM and identify the metabolic components that influence incident DM in Korean subjects. The current study included 14 054 non-diabetic subjects (mean age of 41 years) at the start of the study who were followed for an average of 5 years. We measured the risk for incident DM according to the subjects' baseline BP. Subjects were separated into three groups as follows: normotensive (<120/80 mm Hg), pre-hypertensive (120/80 mm Hg ⩽BP <140/90 mm Hg) and hypertensive (⩾140/90 mm Hg). The overall incidence of DM was 1.8% (246 subjects), comprising 0.9% of the normotensive group, 1.9% of the pre-hypertensive group and 4.0% of the hypertensive group (P<0.01). Within the hypertensive group, subjects with high body mass index (BMI) and high fasting-glucose levels were 40 times more likely to develop DM compared with those with low BMI and low glucose levels (0.3 vs. 13.2%, P=0.001). The risk for incident DM was significantly higher in the hypertensive group compared with that in the normotensive group (OR 3.41 vs. 1.00, P<0.0001). However, the significance disappeared after making adjustments for the baseline BMI and fasting glucose levels (OR 1.18 vs. 1.00, P=0.83). We found that the significance of high BP in predicting incident DM was influenced by the baseline BMI and fasting glucose levels of the subjects

Changes in Trunk Variability and Stability of Gait in Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain: Impact of Laboratory versus Daily-Living Environments

Yuki Nishi,1,2 Hayato Shigetoh,1 Ren Fujii,1 Michihiro Osumi,1,3 Shu Morioka1,3 1Department of Neurorehabilitation, Graduate School of Health Science, Kio University, Nara, Japan; 2Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Nishiyamato Rehabilitation Hospital, Nara, Japan; 3Neurorehabilitation Research Center, Kio University, Nara, JapanCorrespondence: Yuki NishiDepartment of Neurorehabilitation, Graduate School of Health Science, Kio University, 4-2-2 Umaminaka, Koryo-cho, Kitakatsuragi-gun, Nara, 635-0832, JapanTel +81-74-554-1601Fax +81-74-554-1600Email [email protected]: Individuals with chronic low back pain (CLBP) experience changes in gait control due to pain and/or fear. Although CLBP patients&rsquo; gait has been performed in laboratory environments, changes in gait control as an adaptation to unstructured daily living environments may be more pronounced than the corresponding changes in laboratory environments. We investigated the impacts of the environment and pathology on the trunk variability and stability of gait in CLBP patients.Methods: CLBP patients (n=20) and healthy controls with no low-back pain history (n=20) were tasked with walking in a laboratory or daily-living environment while wearing an accelerometer on the low back. We calculated the stride-to-stride standard deviation and multiscale sample entropy as indices of &ldquo;gait variability&rdquo; and the maximum Lyapunov exponent as an index of &ldquo;gait stability&rdquo; in both the anterior-posterior and medial-lateral directions. The participants were assessed on the numerical rating scale for pain intensity, the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia, and the Roland&ndash;Morris Disability Questionnaire for quality of life (QOL).Results: In a repeated-measures ANOVA, the standard deviation was affected by environment in the anterior-posterior direction and by group and environment in the medial-lateral direction. Multiscale sample entropy showed no effect in the anterior-posterior direction and showed both effects in the medial-lateral direction. Maximum Lyapunov exponents showed both effects in the anterior-posterior direction, but none in the medial-lateral direction. These changes of trunk motor control by CLBP patients were found to be related to pain intensity, fear of movement, and/or QOL in the daily-living environment but not in the laboratory environment.Conclusion: These results revealed that CLBP patients exhibit changes in trunk variability and stability of gait depending on the environment, and they demonstrated that these changes are related to pain, fear, and QOL. We propose useful accelerometer-based assessments of qualitative gait in CLBP patients&rsquo; daily lives, as it would provide information not available in a general practice setting.Keywords: chronic low back pain, daily-living gait, variability index, stability index, inertial senso

Study of hybridization gap in the Kondo insulator CeRhAs through inelastic neutron scattering

We have carried out inelastic neutron scattering measurements on a Kondo insulator CeRhAs over a wide energy range. Our low-energy studies with an incident energy of E-i = 20 meV do not show any evidence of magnetic scattering below 20 meV. On the other hand, measurements done with E-i = 500 meV exhibit a spin gap of 150 meV. The spin gap energy of 150 meV we found appears to be consistent with the Kondo temperature of similar to 1530K estimated from bulk susceptibility. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Resting heart rate and risk of type 2 diabetes in women

Background Resting heart rate has been shown to predict risk of cardiovascular disease; its association with diabetes remains unclear, particularly in non-Western populations