The association of serum lipid level with ischemic stroke in the elderly of Xinjiang.

BACKGROUND: The aim of the present study is to determine the association of serum lipid level in the above 55-year-old age elderly with ischemic stroke (IS) in Xinjiang regions, China. METHODS: 408 patients with IS and 347 healthy individuals as control in the ≥55-year-old elderly were selected for the present study in Xinjiang province of China from July 2010 to July 2012. Patients were divided into different groups according to the IS subtypes (large-artery atherosclerosis, LAA; cardio-aortic embolism CE; small-artery occlusion, SAO), plague stability, hypertension and diabetes. The serum lipid level including total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), apolipoprotein A1 (ApoA1), apolipoprotein B (ApoB), Lipoprotein(a) (Lp(a)) and their ratios(TC/HDL, LDL/HDL, ApoA1/ApoB) were measured. RESULTS: Patients in LAA group had higher ratio of TC/HDL, ApoA1/ApoB and lower level of ApoA1 than SAO group(p<0.05); higher level of TC, HDL, LDL, TC/HDL, LDL/HDL, ApoA1/ApoB and lower level of ApoB compared with CE group. Patients in SAO group had higher level of LDL, ApoA1, ApoB, TC/HDL, LDL/HDL and ApoA1/ApoB than CE group. Patients with stable plaque had higher level of HDL and low level of LDL, ApoB, Lp(a), TC/HDL, LDL/HDL and ApoA1/ApoB than unstable plaque group. Patients with hypertension had higher level of TG, ApoB, Lp(a), LDL/HDL and ApoA1/ApoB than non-hypertensive group. Patients with diabetes had higher level of TC, TG, ApoB, TC/HDL, LDL/HDL, ApoA1/ApoB and low level of ApoA1 than non-diabetic group. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that high LDL, ApoB, LDL/HDL and ApoA1/ApoB might be the risk factors for ischemic stroke. CONCLUSION: An abnormal serum lipid level of the patients with IS in older Xinjiang population is significantly associated with the stroke subtypes, plaque stability, hypertension and diabetes.

Experimental Array for Generating Dual Circularly-Polarized Dual-Mode OAM Radio Beams.

Recently, vortex beam carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) for radio communications has attracted much attention for its potential of transmitting multiple signals simultaneously at the same frequency, which can be used to increase the channel capacity. However, most of the methods for getting multi-mode OAM radio beams are of complicated structure and very high cost. This paper provides an effective solution of generating dual circularly-polarized (CP) dual-mode OAM beams. The antenna consists of four dual-CP elements which are sequentially rotated 90 degrees in the clockwise direction. Different from all previous published research relating to OAM generation by phased arrays, the four elements are fed with the same phase for both left-hand circular polarization (LHCP) and right-hand circular polarization (RHCP). The dual-mode operation for OAM is achieved through the opposite phase differences generated for LHCP and RHCP, when the dual-CP elements are sequentially rotated in the clockwise direction. The measured results coincide well with the simulated ones, which verified the effectiveness of the proposed design.

Gene Polymorphisms Affect the Effectiveness of Atorvastatin in Treating Ischemic Stroke Patients.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The aim of the present study is to investigate whether the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in lipid metabolism related genes would affect the effectiveness of atorvastatin in both Han and Uighur populations. METHODS: 200 ischemic stroke patients were treated with atorvastatin. The differences of blood lipid level and their ratios were measured. Six lipid related genes, HMGCR, APOA5, LPL, CETP, LDLR and PCSK9 were selected as candidate genes. And nine SNP loci in these six genes were genotyped by SNaPshot technique. RESULTS: In all patients treated with atorvastatin, the SNP rs662799 significantly affected the ratio of x0394;LDL and x0394;LDL/LDL (p < 0.05); the SNP rs320 significantly affected the ratio of x0394;LDL/LDL and x0394;(LDL/HDL)/(LDL/HDL) (p < 0.01) and the SNP rs708272 significantly affected the ratio of x0394;LDL (p < 0.05). In Han population treated with atorvastatin, the SNP rs662799 significantly affected the ratio of x0394;TG (p < 0.05); the SNP rs320 significantly affected the ratio of x0394;LDL/LDL and x0394;(LDL/HDL)/(LDL/HDL) (p < 0.01). In Uighur population treated with atorvastatin, the SNP rs2266788 significantly affected the ratio of x0394;HDL (p < 0.05); the SNP rs662799 significantly affected the ratio of x0394;LDL/LDL (p < 0.05) and the SNP rs708272 significantly affected the ratio of x0394;LDL (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Polymorphisms of rs662799 and rs2266788 in APOA5 gene, rs320 in LPL gene and rs708272 in CETP gene had significant association with the effect of the lipid-lowering therapy via atorvastatin calcium on ischemic stroke patients.

Rotman Lens-Based Circular Array for Generating Five-mode OAM Radio Beams.

Recently, vortex beam carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) for radio communications has attracted much attention for its potential of transmitting multiple signals simultaneously at the same frequency, which can be used to increase the channel capacity. However, most of the methods for getting multi-mode OAM radio beams remain up to now mainly at simulation level, since their implementations are of complicated structure and very high cost. This paper provides an effective design of generating five-mode OAM radio beams by using the Rotman lens-fed antenna array. The Rotman lens is a viable beamforming approach instead of electronically scanned arrays for its low cost and the ease of implementation. The lens-fed array employs a two-layer structure for size reduction, and the lens body and the antenna array are segregated by a common ground plane to eliminate spurious radiation and thus improve the performance of the OAM beams. The measured results coincide with the simulated ones, which verified the effectiveness of the proposed design for generating multi-mode OAM beams.