The MHC2TA -168A>G gene polymorphism is not associated with rheumatoid arthritis in Austrian patients

An association between susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and a common -168A>G polymorphism in the MHC2TA gene with differential major histocompatibility complex (MHC) II molecule expression was recently reported in a Swedish population. The objective of the present study was to replicate this finding by examining the -168A>G polymorphism in an Austrian case–control study. Three hundred and sixty-two unrelated RA cases and 351 sex-matched and age-matched controls as well as 1,709 Austrian healthy individuals were genotyped. All participants were from the same ethnic background. Genotyping was performed using 5' allelic discrimination assays. The association between susceptibility to RA and the -168A>G single nucleotide polymorphism was examined by chi-square test. Comparison was made assuming a dominant effect (AG + GG genotypes versus AA genotype). In contrast to the primary report, the frequency of MHC2TA -168G allele carriers was not significantly different between patients and controls in the Austrian cohort. The homozygous MHC2TA -168 GG genotype was more frequent in matched controls than in Austrian RA patients. There was no association between the presence of RA-specific autoantibodies and the MHC2TA -168 GG genotype. In this cohort of Austrian patients, no association between the MHC2TA polymorphism and RA was found

High disease activity of ankylosing spondylitis in the community before the introduction of tumour necrosis factor blockers

This investigation focuses on the effects produced by the forcing of adjacent synthetic jets arrays injected tangentially to the wall in the spanwise direction of a fully developed turbulent channel flow. The effects of the forcing frequency and of the synthetic jets arrays configuration are investigated. Instantaneous wall shear stress and streamwise velocity fluctuations give evidence of drag reduction and also turbulence attenuation up to 20%. The benefits of the forcing are remarkable along the channel axis up to 153 half channel height and are persistent in the spanwise direction up to a quarter of channel width. The forcing frequencies producing drag reduction and turbulence attenuation are of the order of few Hertz at the Reynolds number investigated (Re_tau=180)