Annals of medicine
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While trying to return the identity to human remains, the forensic anthropologist has to estimate four basic parameters: sex, age at death, ancestry, and stature. These are the so-called big four parameters of identification which altogether with the identity factors can allow a positive identification, which enables the return of the remains to the families. This presentation focusses the problematic of age estimation of older individuals which is a very relevant question since a lot of "John Doe's" are old individuals who lived alone and/or who got lost. ⋯ The ones to be analysed are also dictated by the state of preservation and completeness of the skeletal remains. Some of these skeletal age indicators will be commented and the contribution of genetics to this issue will also be approached. The relevance of this subject will be illustrated through the presentation of some practical forensic cases.
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Observational Study
Serum uric acid and risk of incident hypercholesterolemia and hypertriglyceridemia in middle-aged and older Chinese: a 4-year prospective cohort study.
The aim was to investigate whether serum uric acid (SUA) was associated with incident hypercholesterolaemia and hypertriglyceridaemia in middle-aged and older Chinese. ⋯ These findings suggest that SUA may be positively associated with incident hypertriglyceridaemia. KEY MESSAGES The natural cubic spline model showed a positive linear dose-response relationship between serum uric acid levels and hypertriglyceridaemia. Compared with the quartile 1 of SUA, the adjusted risk ratios (95% confidence interval) of hypertriglyceridaemia were 1.15 (0.95-1.39), 1.23 (1.02-1.49) and 1.31 (1.08-1.59) for quartile 2-4 (p-value for trend = .004), respectively. Sex-stratified analyses indicated that the association of serum uric acid with hypertriglyceridaemia was more evident in the female.
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Recent prevalence and trends of gastric/duodenal ulcer (GU/DU) and reflux esophagitis (RE) are inadequate. ⋯ The prevalence of GU and DU has gradually decreased whereas that of RE has markedly increased in Japan. Inverse time trends of peptic ulcer and reflux esophagitis are significantly associated with reduced prevalence of HP infection. KEY MESSAGES The prevalence of gastric and duodenal ulcer has gradually decreased whereas that of reflux esophagitis has markedly increased in Japan. The prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection in Japan has greatly decreased from 49.8% to 31.2% during the 14 years (from 1996 to 2010). Inverse time trends of peptic ulcer and reflux esophagitis are associated with reduced prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection with statistical significance.