On the IGT, males selected more cards from the advantageous

decks than females. On the reversal learning task, there was no significant sex difference in acquisition of the reinforcement contingencies, but males made fewer errors than females during the reversal phase. The sexes did not differ significantly on the n-back or SOP tasks. These findings provide tentative support for the hypothesis this website that functions carried out by the VMPFC/OFC are sexually differentiated in humans. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.”
“Background: In heart failure (HF), traditional cardiovascular risk factors (RF) as body mass index (BMI), total cholesterol (TC) and systolic blood pressure (SBP) are associated with better survival. It is unknown at which time point along the disease continuum the adverse impact of these RF ceases and may ‘start to reverse’. We analyzed the distribution of RF and their association with survival across HF stages. Methods: We pooled data from four cohort studies from the German Competence Network HF. Employing ACC/AHA-criteria, patients were allocated to stage A (n = 218), B (n = 1324), C1 (i.e., New York Heart Association [NYHA] classes I & II; n = 1134), and C2 + D (NYHA III & IV; n = 639). Results: With increasing HF severity

median age increased (63/67/67/70 years), whereas the proportion of females (56/52/37/35%), median BMI (26.1/28.8/27.7/26.6 kg/m(2)), TC (212/204/191/172 mg/dl),

and AC220 order SBP (140/148/130/120 mm Hg) decreased (P smaller KU-57788 mw than 0.001 for trend for all). In the total cohort, higher levels of all RF were associated with better survival, even after extensive adjustment for multiple confounders. If analyses were stratified, however, a higher RF burden predicted better survival only in clinically symptomatic patients: hazard ratio (HR) per + 2 kg/m(2) BMI 0.91 (95% confidence interval 0.88; 0.95); per + 10 mg/dl TC 0.93 (0.92; 0.95); per + 5 mm Hg SBP 0.94 (0.92; 0.95). Conclusion: In this well-characterized sample of patients representing the entire HF continuum, reverse associations were only consistently observed in symptomatic HF stages. Our data indicate that the phenomenon of a “reverse epidemiology” in HF is subject to significant selection bias in less advanced disease. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Bogatkevich GS, Ludwicka-Bradley A, Singleton CB, Bethard JR, Silver RM. Proteomic analysis of CTGF- activated lung fibroblasts: identification of IQGAP1 as a key player in lung fibroblast migration. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol 295: L603-L611, 2008. First published August 1, 2008; doi: 10.1152/ajplung.00530.2007.-Connective tissue growth factor ( CTGF, CCN2) is overexpressed in lung fibroblasts isolated from patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD) and systemic sclerosis (SSc, scleroderma) and is considered to be a molecular marker of fibrosis.