[The relationship between quantitative ultrasound and osteoporosis self-assessment tool for Asians (OSTA) score and non-vertebral fracture in postmenopausal Chinese women].

OBJECTIVE: To assess a simple and non-invasive scoring system, osteoporosis self-assessment tool for Asians (OSTA) and quantitative ultrasound (QUS) measurement to identify Chinese postmenopausal women with non-vertebral fracture. METHODS: Data came from 513 healthy women. Speed of sound (SOS) of the radius, phalanx and tibia was assessed using the instrument of Omniscience (Sunlight Ltd. Israel). Body height and weight were measured. Body mass index and OSTA were calculated. Self-reported fractures were identified using a structured questionnaire. RESULTS: SOS of radius was significantly lower in women with non-vertebral fracture than those without. SOS of phalanx was significantly lower in women with a history of postmenopausal non-vertebral fracture than those without. Using cut-offs of OSTA -4 and -1 to categorize osteoporosis risk, SOS of radius, phalanx and tibia decreased with increasing risk, while the prevalence of non-vertebral fracture increased. OSTA values of

[Association of peripheral and central blood pressure with the alpha-adducin Gly460Trp polymorphism in a Chinese population].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association of peripheral and central blood pressure with the alpha-adducin Gly460Trp polymorphism in Chinese. METHODS: We randomly selected 6 villages from JingNing County, ZheJiang Province. We invited nuclear families to take part in our study. We measured each participant's blood pressure at the non-dominant arm by means of a standard mercury sphygmomanometer at subjects' homes. Five consecutive readings were averaged for analysis. Central blood pressures were obtained by use of SphigmoCor pulse wave analysis system. The observers administered a standardized questionnaire to collect information on smoking habits, alcohol consumption and use of antihypertensive drugs. Venous blood was sampled and the adducin genotype was determined by restrictive fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). RESULTS: Four hundred and forty-two subjects included 230 (52.0%) women, and 116 (26.2%) hypertensive patients, of whom 49 (11.1%) took antihypertensive drugs. The frequencies of alpha -adducin GlyGly, GlyTrp and TrpTrp genotypes were 21.3%, 54.5% and 24.2%, respectively. There was no association between the alpha-adducin Gly460Trp polymorphism and peripheral systolic and diastolic blood pressure and pulse pressure. However, both before and after adjustment for sex, age, age(2), body-mass index, current smoking, alcohol intake, and antihypertensive treatment, the alpha-adducin polymorphism was significantly (P < 0.02) associated with central systolic blood pressure and central pulse pressure. After adjustment, central systolic blood pressure (+/- SE) averaged 122.5 +/- 3.5, 114.1 +/- 1.5 and 109.1 +/- 1.8 mm Hg (P = 0.01) in the GlyGly, GlyTrp and TrpTrp subjects, respectively. The corresponding values for central pulse pressure were 39.4 +/- 1.3, 36.4 +/- 1.0 and 32.9 +/- 0.9 mm Hg (P = 0.002), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: In the JingNing population, the adducin 460Trp allele was associated with lower levels of central systolic pressure and pulse pressure.

Family-based associations between the angiotensin- converting enzyme insertion/deletion polymorphism and multiple cardiovascular risk factors in Chinese.

OBJECTIVE: We investigated, in a sample of Chinese families, the associations of body mass index (BMI), blood pressure (BP), serum lipids, fasting plasma glucose, serum creatinine and uric acid with the insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism of the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene. METHODS: We genotyped 902 subjects from 186 nuclear families recruited in Shanghai, China, via a specialized hypertension clinic. We performed family-based association analyses for continuous and dichotomous phenotypic measurements using the quantitative and sib- transmission/disequilibrium tests (QTDT and Sib-TDT), respectively. RESULTS: The study sample included 121 parents and 781 offspring from 25 two-parent families, 71 one-parent families, and 90 families without parental information. The median number of offspring was four (range from 2 to 10). Of the 654 (85.4%) hypertensive offspring, 458 took antihypertensive drugs. The 354 male offspring were slightly younger than the 427 female siblings (48.1 versus 49.2 years, P = 0.03), but they had similar BMI (25.1 kg/m). In 482 informative offspring, QTDT analyses demonstrated a significant association between BMI and the transmission of the ACE D allele (regression coefficient 0.563, chi 2 = 4.02, P = 0.04). In 106 families with at least one hypertensive offspring and at least one normotensive sibling, Sib-TDT analyses showed that the ACE D allele was slightly over-transmitted from heterozygous parents to hypertensive offspring (P = 0.08). CONCLUSIONS: Our family-based study suggests that in Chinese, the ACE I/D polymorphism might play a role in the development of obesity and hypertension, which are closely linked cardiovascular risk factors.

[Heritability of serum leptin levels: a twin study].

OBJECTIVE: To study the contribution of genetic factors to the variance of serum leptin concentration in healthy, normotensive twins. METHODS: A total of 57 pairs of twins were investigated: 28 female and 19 male pairs of monozygotic(MZ) twins, and 6 female and 4 male pairs of dizygotic(DZ) twins. The zygosity of twins was determined by comparing the concordance of the genotype of nine fluorescence-labeled microsatellite markers. The genetic analysis was performed using the variance-based method. Serum leptin levels were determined in duplicate by a radioimmunoassay Kit (Linco Research, Inc., St. Charles, Missouri) as previously described. RESULTS: The test of genetic variance revealed a significantly larger within-pair variance of serum leptin in the DZ twins, in comparison with the MZ twins. The corresponding heritability for serum leptin was 8%. Adjusted for BMI, gender, and uric acid (UA), the heritability for serum leptin was 0.18%. Log leptin correlated significantly with blood pressure (SBp r=0.355 P<0.001; DBp r=0.339 P<0.001). Stepwise multiple linear regression analysis revealed that only BMI, gender and UA were linked independently to serum leptin levels(R(2)=0.788, P<0.001). CONCLUSION: The above data indicate that environmental factors other than genetic factors are important determinants of leptinemia in normal subjects.

[Analyses of the results of an animal experiment on graft-heparin conduits].

We inserted the 0.6 mm caliber graft-heparin (in inner wall) conduits into the tailarteries of 14 mice. The results showed that the graft conduit could be used repeatedly with no blood oozing out in the wound, no massive internal hemorrhage, and no additional coagulative reagent given during the whole experiment. On the other hand, the graft-heparin conduits of variant caliber were inserted into the femur arteries of 4 rabbits and 4 dogs for blood pressure experiment and femur arterio-venous bypass tests. The results showed that the anticoagulative effect of these conduits was markedly improved, but there was a strip of thrombus. There was no thrombus track in the wall of the conduit. The strip of thrombus was formed first in the cone of conduit where caliber changed. The results indicate that the blood flow resistance is in inverse proportion to 4 power of the conduit radius. So the thinner the conduit is, the more sensitive to conduit radius variation the conduit resistance will be. In studying and making the arfificial conduit, one must take notice of the conduit caliber, which should be equal to the caliber of the blood vessel.

[The relation between overload and variability of blood pressure and overweight or obesity in patients with essential hypertension].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between blood pressure variability, overweight or obesity in patients with essential hypertensive. METHODS: A hundred ninety-one patients with essential hypertension were divided into three groups: normal, overweight and obese according to body mass index (BMI). The characteristics of the variability of 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) in three groups were compared. RESULTS: Blood pressure overload and variability increased parallel with the increase of BMI. In overweight group, the variabilities of systolic blood pressure at night (nSBPSD) increased 14.10%, the variabilities of diastolic blood pressure at night (nDBPSD) increased 13.15% and the variabilities of mean arterial pressure at night (nMAPSD) increased 15.92% respectively. In the obese group, the above three variabilities increased more significantly (compared to normal group P < 0.05-0.01). However, increases of the three blood pressure variabilities were observed only in the male patients. CONCLUSIONS: The overweight or obesity increased the blood pressure overload and variabilities in patients with essential hypertension. The increases of blood pressure variabilities were observed only in male patients and at night.