Plos One
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After the worldwide steep increase in child and adolescent overweight and obesity during the last decades, there is now evidence of a levelling off in the prevalence in many countries in the Western world. ⋯ This study, based on data from 1998 through 2011, showed that the prevalence rates of overweight and obesity among Danish infants, children and adolescents were largely still on a plateau with tendencies for a decline among children and adolescents.
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Heterogeneity has a key role in meta-analysis methods and can greatly affect conclusions. However, true levels of heterogeneity are unknown and often researchers assume homogeneity. We aim to: a) investigate the prevalence of unobserved heterogeneity and the validity of the assumption of homogeneity; b) assess the performance of various meta-analysis methods; c) apply the findings to published meta-analyses. ⋯ When evidence for heterogeneity is lacking, standard practice is to assume homogeneity and apply a simpler fixed-effect meta-analysis. We find that assuming homogeneity often results in a misleading analysis, since heterogeneity is very likely present but undetected. Our new method represents a small improvement but the problem largely remains, especially for very small meta-analyses. One solution is to test the sensitivity of the meta-analysis conclusions to assumed moderate and large degrees of heterogeneity. Equally, whenever heterogeneity is detected, it should not be ignored.
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Chronicity of pain is one of the most interesting questions in chronic pain study. Clinical and experimental data suggest that supraspinal areas responsible for negative emotions such as depression and anxiety contribute to the chronicity of pain. The amygdala is suspected to be a potential structure for the pain chronicity due to its critical role in processing negative emotions and pain information. ⋯ These results suggest that BLA activities in the early stage after nerve injury might be crucial to the development of pain chronicity, and amygdala-related negative emotions and pain-related memories could promote pain chronicity.
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Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a life-threatening complication of severe rhabdomyolysis. This study was conducted to assess risk factors for AKI and to develop a risk score for early prediction. ⋯ The identification of independent factors associated with AKI and a risk score for early prediction of this complication in patients with severe rhabdomyolysis may be useful in clinical practice, particularly to implement early preventive measures.
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Semaphorin 3A is a new early diagnostic biomarker of experimental and pediatric acute kidney injury.
Semaphorin 3A is a secreted protein that regulates cell motility and attachment in axon guidance, vascular growth, immune cell regulation and tumor progression. However, nothing is known about its role in kidney pathophysiology. Here, we determined whether semaphorin3A is induced after acute kidney injury (AKI) and whether urinary semaphorin 3A can predict AKI in humans undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). ⋯ Our results suggest that semaphorin 3A is an early, predictive biomarker in experimental and pediatric AKI, and may allow for the reliable early diagnosis and prognosis of AKI after CPB, much before the rise in serum creatinine.