ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To date, most investigations of mental health in pregnant women have focused on depression or substance use. This study aimed to (a) delineate the relationships between symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and prenatal health behaviors and (b) explore whether the symptom clusters of ADHD differentially predict prenatal health behaviors (e.g., physical strain, healthy eating, prenatal vitamin use). METHOD: A total of 198 pregnant women (mean age = 27.94 years) completed measures of ADHD symptoms, prenatal health behaviors, and depression. RESULTS: Inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity/emotional lability all evidenced significant relationships with the prenatal health behaviors, each differentially predicting different prenatal health behaviors. CONCLUSION: As decreased engagement in adequate prenatal health behaviors puts both the mother and fetus at risk for negative birth outcomes, future research should work to develop a brief ADHD screen to be used in obstetric clinics and should investigate these relationships within a sample of women with a diagnosis of ADHD.
Subject(s)
Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity/physiopathology , Health Behavior , Pregnancy Complications/physiopathology , Adolescent , Adult , Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity/classification , Female , Humans , Male , Pregnancy , Pregnancy Complications/classification , Young AdultABSTRACT
Energy production by oxidative metabolism in kidney, stomach, and heart, is primarily expended in establishing ion gradients to drive renal electrolyte homeostasis, gastric acid secretion, and cardiac muscle contraction, respectively. In addition to orchestrating transcriptional control of oxidative metabolism, the orphan nuclear receptor, estrogen-related receptor gamma (ERRgamma), coordinates expression of genes central to ion homeostasis in oxidative tissues. Renal, gastric, and cardiac tissues subjected to genomic analysis of expression in perinatal ERRgamma null mice revealed a characteristic dysregulation of genes involved in transport processes, exemplified by the voltage-gated potassium channel, Kcne2. Consistently, ERRgamma null animals die during the first 72 h of life with elevated serum potassium, reductions in key gastric acid production markers, and cardiac arrhythmia with prolonged QT intervals. In addition, we find altered expression of several genes associated with hypertension in ERRgamma null mice. These findings suggest a potential role for genetic polymorphisms at the ERRgamma locus and ERRgamma modulators in the etiology and treatment of renal, gastric, and cardiac dysfunction.
Subject(s)
Gastric Mucosa/metabolism , Gene Expression Regulation , Heart/physiology , Kidney/metabolism , Myocardium/metabolism , Potassium/metabolism , Receptors, Estrogen/physiology , Adult , Animals , Animals, Newborn , Body Mass Index , Female , Genetic Association Studies , Homeostasis , Humans , Hypertension/genetics , Kidney/pathology , Long QT Syndrome/genetics , Male , Mice , Middle Aged , Myocardium/pathology , Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis , Organ Specificity , Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide , Potassium Channels, Voltage-Gated/genetics , Potassium Channels, Voltage-Gated/metabolism , Receptors, Estrogen/deficiency , Receptors, Estrogen/genetics , Stomach/pathologyABSTRACT
DNA composition in general, and codon usage in particular, is crucial for understanding gene function and evolution. CodonExplorer, available online at http://bmf.colorado.edu/codonexplorer/, is an online tool and interactive database that contains millions of genes, allowing rapid exploration of the factors governing gene and genome compositional evolution and exploiting GC content and codon usage frequency to identify genes with composition suggesting high levels of expression or horizontal transfer.
Subject(s)
Codon/metabolism , Genes , Genome , Software , Base Composition , Base Sequence , Computational Biology , Online SystemsABSTRACT
OBJECT: The authors present a retrospective analysis of their initial experience with the recently developed MicroVention HydroCoil to treat patients with cerebral aneurysms. Unlike the bare metal coils initially available for endovascular treatment of aneurysms, HydroCoils have a layer of hydrogel polymer surrounding a platinum metallic core. The hydrogel polymer expands soon after making contact with blood. The expanded hydrogel polymer provides increased volumetric filling compared with bare metal coils and offers a more biocompatible surface, as demonstrated in animal models. METHODS: Over a 17-month period, the authors used HydroCoils to treat 30 patients with 33 aneurysms. All patients had been treated at least 6 months prior to data analysis. Initial treatment results as well as records of clinical and angiographic follow up were reviewed. Six-month posttreatment angiograms were available for 25 patients. CONCLUSIONS: The HydroCoils were implanted with few complications. On angiographic follow up, a clearly defined radiolucent separation of the coils from the parent artery was noted in many of the aneurysms treated. The authors have not previously observed angiographically demonstrated lucencies separating the coils from the parent artery. This frequent, but not consistent, appearance on follow-up angiograms obtained in this study indicates that HydroCoils support significant neointimal formation across the neck of treated aneurysms. The preliminary results indicate that HydroCoils can be used safely and effectively to treat aneurysms and that these devices may allow for improved aneurysm filling.
