Sex Coefficient Research Articles

GFR Estimation Using β-Trace Protein and β2-Microglobulin in CKD

β-Trace protein (BTP) and β2-microglobulin (B2M) are novel glomerular filtration markers that have stronger associations with adverse outcomes than creatinine. Comparisons of BTP and B2M to creatinine and cystatin C are limited by the absence of rigorously developed glomerular filtration rate (GFR) estimating equations for the novel markers. Study of diagnostic test accuracy. Pooled database of 3 populations with chronic kidney disease (CKD) with mean measured GFR of 48 mL/min/1.73 m2 (N=3,551; MDRD [Modification of Diet in Renal Disease] Study, AASK [African American Study of Kidney Disease and Hypertension], and CRIC [Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort] Study). GFR estimated using creatinine, cystatin C, BTP, or B2M level. GFR measured as the urinary clearance of iothalamate. For BTP and B2M, coefficients for age, sex, and race were smaller than for creatinine and were similar or smaller than for cystatin C. For B2M, coefficients for sex, age, and race were smaller than for creatinine and were similar (age and race) or smaller (sex) than for cystatin C. The final equations with BTP (BTP, age, and sex) or B2M (B2M alone) were less accurate than either the CKD-EPI (CKD Epidemiology Collaboration) creatinine or cystatin C equations. The combined BTP-B2M equation (BTP and B2M alone) had similar accuracy to the CKD-EPI creatinine or cystatin C equation. The average of the BTP-B2M equation and the CKD-EPI creatinine-cystatin C equation was not more accurate than the CKD-EPI creatinine-cystatin C equation. No external validation population, study population was restricted to CKD, few participants older than 65 years, or nonblack nonwhite race. BTP and B2M are less influenced by age, sex, and race than creatinine and less influenced by race than cystatin C, but provide less accurate GFR estimates than the CKD-EPI creatinine and cystatin C equations. The CKD-EPI BTP and B2M equation provides a methodological advance for their study as filtration markers and in their associations with risk and adverse outcomes, but further study is required before clinical use.

Factors influencing health-related quality of life after total hip replacement - a comparison of data from the Swedish and Danish hip arthroplasty registers

BackgroundThere is an increasing focus on measuring patient-reported outcomes (PROs) as part of routine medical practice, particularly in fields such as joint replacement surgery where pain relief and improvement in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) are primary outcomes. Between-country comparisons of PROs may present difficulties due to cultural differences and differences in the provision of health care. However, in order to understand how these differences affect PROs, common predictors for poor and good outcomes need to be investigated. This cross-sectional study investigates factors influencing health-related quality of life (HRQoL) one year after total hip replacement (THR) surgery in Sweden and in Denmark.MethodsData was retrieved from the Swedish (n = 14 560 patients) and Danish (n = 632 patients) Hip Arthroplasty Registers according to preset selection criteria. Using linear regression models, we examined how sex, age, comorbidity and country of surgery were associated with different aspects of HRQoL as measured by the EQ-5D index and EQ VAS.ResultsDanish patients had an overall higher EQ-5D index and EQ VAS than Swedish patients (p < 0.001). After regression analysis, the estimated coefficients for sex, age, or the Charlson score did not differ between countries for either the EQ-5D index (p = 0.83) or EQ VAS (p = 0.41) one year after THR.ConclusionsWe conclude that there are clear similarities in how basic predictors influence patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in patients with THR in Sweden and Denmark and these known predictors of good or poor HRQoL outcomes are not specific for each country.

Pattern of Medical Care Services Utilization in Fiji

The present study was designed to analyze sociodemographic and health related factors that influence the utilization of medical care services in Fiji by using the method of discriminant function. Some sociodemographic and health related independent variables had significant effects on the two patterns of modern and traditional medical services utilization. Discriminant function coefficients for sex, age and race are large enough to suggest the importance of discriminating between two patterns of medical care utilization. This suggests that traditional medical service is coexistent with modern medicine in Fiji and might play an extremely important role in providing health care for rural communities in the same way as modern medicine.

Combined Effects of Gender and Hypertension on the Geometric Design of Large Arteries: Sexual Differences in Normal and Hypertensive Forearm Arteries

The effects of sex, hypertension, morphologic status, and heart rate were assessed on the large arteries of 46 normotensive subjects (23 men and 23 women) and 50 hypertensive patients (25 men and 25 women) by means of pulsed Doppler determination of diameter and blood velocity of the brachial artery. Compared to men, women had lower height, weight, and forearm volume (P less than 0.001), higher heart rate (P less than 0.001), and lower brachial artery diameter (P less than 0.001) both in the normotensive and hypertensive groups. Compared to normotensives, hypertensives of the same sex showed an increase in brachial artery diameter, only significant in men (P less than 0.001), and an increase in heart rate, only significant in women (P less than 0.001). The multiple regression analysis of brachial artery diameter showed significant coefficients for sex and hypertension (P less than 0.001), and for age and heart rate (P less than 0.05); the multiple regression analysis of blood velocity showed that only the coefficient of hypertension was significant (P less than 0.05). The study of first-order interactions between the independent variables revealed that effect of sex on arterial diameter did not depend on the other variables. In contrast the effects of age and heart rate were influenced by the presence or the absence of hypertension, and arterial caliber was positively related to age in normotensive subjects (P less than 0.05) but not in hypertensive patients, and negatively related to heart rate in hypertensive patients (P less than 0.001) but not in normotensive subjects.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Breed and sex differences in equally mature sheep and goats 1. Growth and food intake

ABSTRACTGenetic size-scaling accounts for most of the variation found among mammalian species in food intake and growth rate, with food conversion efficiency independent of the body size of the species. Is the same true of breeds and strains within species?Animals from Soay, Welsh Mountain, Southdown, Finish Landrace, Jacob, Wiltshire Horn and Oxford Down sheep breeds and from a breed of feral goats were grown to 0·40, 0·52, 0·64 or 0·76 of the mean mature weight of their breed and sex. Food was offered ad libitum and individually recorded.Allometric growth coefficients were obtained for fleece weight, femur weight and femur length. Fleece was late maturing and femur early.Breed and sex size-scaling coefficients, obtained by regression of breed and sex means on mature size, were similar to those found at the species level for age from conception to slaughter, time taken to mature and food conversion efficiency. Coefficients were higher than expected for total and daily food consumption, especially at early stages of maturity. Most breed coefficients were close to expectation while sex coefficients were somewhat higher than expected.There were significant breed deviations: Welsh Mountain, Oxford Down and probably Soay sheep required less time and Jacob sheep and feral goats required more time to mature than expected from differences in mature size. Soay and Welsh Mountain sheep appeared to be more efficient and feral goats and Jacob sheep less efficient food converters over the same maturity interval.

THE EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE UPON FACET NUMBER IN THE BAR-EYED MUTANT OF DROSOPHILA

Three strains of the bar-eyed mutant of Drosophila melanogaster Meig have been reared at constant temperatures over a range of 15-31 degrees C. The mean facet number in the bar-eyed mutant varies inversely with the temperature at which the larvae develop. The temperature coefficient (Q(10)) is of the same order as that for chemical reactions. The facet-temperature relations may be plotted as an exponential curve for temperatures from 15-31 degrees . The rate of development of the immature stages gives a straight line temperature curve between 15 and 29 degrees . Beyond 29 degrees the rate decreases again with a further rise in temperature. The facet curve may be readily superimposed on the development curve between 15 and 27 degrees . The straight line feature of the development curve is probably due to the flattening out of an exponential curve by secondary factors. Since both the straight line and the exponential curve appear simultaneously in the same living material, it is impractical to locate the secondary factors in enzyme destruction, differences in viscosity, or in the physical state of colloids. Differential temperature coefficients for the various separate processes involved in development furnish the best basis for an explanation of the straight line feature of the curve representing the effect of temperature on the rate of physiological processes. Facet number in the full-eyed wild stock is not affected by temperature to a marked degree. The mean facet number for fifteen full-eyed females raised at 27 degrees is 859.06. The mean facet number for the Low Selected Bar females at 27 degrees is 55.13; for the Ultra-bar females at 27 degrees it is 21.27. A consistent sexual difference appears in all the bar stocks, the females having fewer facets. This relation may be expressed by the sex coefficient, the average value of which is 0.791. The average observed difference in mean facet number for a difference of 1 degrees C. in the environment in which the flies developed is 3.09 for the Ultra-bar stock and 14.01 for the Low Selected stock. The average proportional differences in the mean for a difference of 1 degrees C. are 9.22 per cent for Ultra-bar, and 14.51 for Low Selected. The differences in the number of facets per degrees C. are greatest at the low and least at the high temperatures. The difference in the number of facets per degrees C. varies with the mean. The proportional differences in the mean per degrees C. are greatest at the lower (15-17.5 degrees ) and higher (29-31 degrees ) temperatures and least at the intermediate temperatures. Temperature is a factor in determining facet number only during a relatively short period in larval development. This effective period, at 27 degrees , comes between the end of the 3rd and the end of the 4th day. At 15 degrees , this period is initiated at the end of 8 days following a 1st day at 27 degrees . At 27 degrees this period is approximately 18 hours long. At 15 degrees it is approximately 72 hours long. The number of facets and the length of the immature stage (egg-larval-pupal) appear related when the whole of development is passed at one temperature. That the number of facets is not dependent upon the length of the immature stage is shown by experiments in which only a part of development was passed at one temperature and the remainder at another. Temperature affects the reaction determining the number of facets in approximately the same way that it affects the other developmental reactions, hence the apparent correlation between facet number and the length of the immature stage. Variability as expressed by the coefficient of variability has a tendency to increase with temperature. Standard deviation, on the other hand, appears to decrease with rise in temperature. Neither inheritance nor induction effects are exhibited by this material. This study shows that environment may markedly affect the somatic expression of one Mendelian factor (bar eye), while it has no visible influence on another (white eye).

THE EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE UPON FACET NUMBER IN THE BAR-EYED MUTANT OF DROSOPHILA

Three strains of the bar-eyed mutant of Drosophila melanogaster Meig have been reared at constant temperatures over a range of 15-31 degrees C. The mean facet number in the bar-eyed mutant varies inversely with the temperature at which the larvae develop. The temperature coefficient (Q(10)) is of the same order as that for chemical reactions. The facet-temperature relations may be plotted as an exponential curve for temperatures from 15-31 degrees . The rate of development of the immature stages gives a straight line temperature curve between 15 and 29 degrees . Beyond 29 degrees the rate decreases again with a further rise in temperature. The facet curve may be readily superimposed on the development curve between 15 and 27 degrees . The straight line feature of the development curve is probably due to the flattening out of an exponential curve by secondary factors. Since both the straight line and the exponential curve appear simultaneously in the same living material, it is impractical to locate the secondary factors in enzyme destruction, differences in viscosity, or in the physical state of colloids. Differential temperature coefficients for the various separate processes involved in development furnish the best basis for an explanation of the straight line feature of the curve representing the effect of temperature on the rate of physiological processes. Facet number in the full-eyed wild stock is not affected by temperature to a marked degree. The mean facet number for fifteen full-eyed females raised at 27 degrees is 859.06. The mean facet number for the Low Selected Bar females at 27 degrees is 55.13; for the Ultra-bar females at 27 degrees it is 21.27. A consistent sexual difference appears in all the bar stocks, the females having fewer facets. This relation may be expressed by the sex coefficient, the average value of which is 0.791. The average observed difference in mean facet number for a difference of 1 degrees C. in the environment in which the flies developed is 3.09 for the Ultra-bar stock and 14.01 for the Low Selected stock. The average proportional differences in the mean for a difference of 1 degrees C. are 9.22 per cent for Ultra-bar, and 14.51 for Low Selected. The differences in the number of facets per degrees C. are greatest at the low and least at the high temperatures. The difference in the number of facets per degrees C. varies with the mean. The proportional differences in the mean per degrees C. are greatest at the lower (15-17.5 degrees ) and higher (29-31 degrees ) temperatures and least at the intermediate temperatures. Temperature is a factor in determining facet number only during a relatively short period in larval development. This effective period, at 27 degrees , comes between the end of the 3rd and the end of the 4th day. At 15 degrees , this period is initiated at the end of 8 days following a 1st day at 27 degrees . At 27 degrees this period is approximately 18 hours long. At 15 degrees it is approximately 72 hours long. The number of facets and the length of the immature stage (egg-larval-pupal) appear related when the whole of development is passed at one temperature. That the number of facets is not dependent upon the length of the immature stage is shown by experiments in which only a part of development was passed at one temperature and the remainder at another. Temperature affects the reaction determining the number of facets in approximately the same way that it affects the other developmental reactions, hence the apparent correlation between facet number and the length of the immature stage. Variability as expressed by the coefficient of variability has a tendency to increase with temperature. Standard deviation, on the other hand, appears to decrease with rise in temperature. Neither inheritance nor induction effects are exhibited by this material. This study shows that environment may markedly affect the somatic expression of one Mendelian factor (bar eye), while it has no visible influence on another (white eye).