RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: Assessment of association between plasma vitamin D levels, vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene polymorphisms, and coronary artery disease (CAD) in a predisposed Asian Indian cohort. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients with angiographically proven CAD having age at onset less than 60 years for men and less than 65 years for women were recruited in the Indian Atherosclerosis Research Study and treated as cases (N=287), whereas asymptomatic healthy matched individuals were enrolled from the population, who showed normal electrocardiogram and acted as controls (N=241). Plasma [vitamin D (25-hydroxy vitamin D)] levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and five haplotype-tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms were genotyped by ABI Taqman assays. RESULTS: Mean vitamin D levels were significantly lower in patients with CAD (10.59 ng/ml) than in controls (11.82 ng/ml) (P=0.036). Vitamin D showed protective association against CAD (odds ratio: 0.54, 95% confidence interval: 0.34-0.84, P=0.007) after adjusting for conventional risk factors. Patients in the first vitamin D quartile showed 2.54 times greater risk for CAD than those in the fourth quartile. There was no significant association of VDR single nucleotide polymorphisms/haplotypes with either vitamin D or CAD. Vitamin D levels were significantly lower in vegetarians than in nonvegetarians (P=0.048) and showed inverse association with body weight (P=0.054), triglyceride (P=0.031), and body mass index (P=0.020). CONCLUSION: Low vitamin D level was associated with an enhanced risk for incident CAD. VDR genotypes did not show any association with either vitamin D levels or CAD.
Assuntos
Doença da Artéria Coronariana/sangue , Doença da Artéria Coronariana/genética , Polimorfismo de Nucleotídeo Único/genética , Receptores de Calcitriol/genética , Vitamina D/sangue , Adulto , Idoso , Estudos de Casos e Controles , Estudos de Coortes , Primers do DNA/química , Ensaio de Imunoadsorção Enzimática , Feminino , Frequência do Gene , Genótipo , Humanos , Índia , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Reação em Cadeia da PolimeraseRESUMO
PURPOSE: To evaluate [fluorine-18]2-deoxy-2-fluoro-D-glucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) of the axilla as a screening test for detecting regional spread of breast cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: High-dose FDG PET of the axilla was successfully performed in 50 patients (age range, 36-79 years) with breast cancer before 52 axillary lymph node dissections. Two additional patients had scans that were uninterpretable because of intense myocardial activity that obscured the axilla. RESULTS: The sensitivity and negative predictive value were both 95%, the specificity was 66%, and the overall accuracy was 77%. The only false-negative PET scan was obtained in the largest patient, who had a low-quality scan. CONCLUSION: Patients with negative PET scans had such a low risk for axillary lymph node metastases that axillary dissection was not warranted. Patients with positive PET scans required dissection to confirm the presence and determine the number of positive lymph nodes. Had this algorithm been used to select patients for dissection, approximately $120,000 in charges ($2,300 per patient) would have been saved and 22 patients would have been spared the morbidity of axillary lymph node dissection. Within this study population, PET scans of the axilla were interpreted with sufficient sensitivity for PET to serve as a cost-effective screening test for axillary lymph node metastases.
