BACKGROUND: The visceral fat accumulation, an important factor to increase the insulin resistance is known to be associated with coronary artery disease. We investigated the relation between visceral fat accumulation and the coronary artery disease. METHODS: The coronary artery disease (CAD) group included 14 patients (9 men and 5 women) with angina pectoris. All patients had typical chest pain, diagnosed as coronary artery disease with coronary angiogram or treadmill test. The patients with hypertension, hyperlipidemia, non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM), impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and taking any medication known to affect the insulin sensitivity were excluded. The control group included 24 healthy volunteers (11 men and 13 women) who were not taking any medication. We measured the visceral fat area, abdominal subcutaneous fat area, thigh muscle area and the thigh fat area with computed tomography (CT) in both groups. We measured the plasma lipid profile, plasma insulin and glucose level during the oral glucose tolerance test in both groups. RESULTS: There were no differences in the age, sex ratio, body mass index (BMI) and the waist to hip ratio (WHR) between both groups. The total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol were significantly higher in CAD group (p<0.001). The HDL cholesterol was significantly lower in CAD group (p<0.05). The fasting insulin, fasting glucose, area under curve (AUC) of the insulin and glucose, and the insulin to glucose (IG) ratio were significant higher in CAD group (p<0.001). There were significant differences between CAD group and the control group in the visceral fat area (94.2+/-19.1 cm2 vs. 76.5+/-34.3 cm2, p<0.05), thigh fat area (60.2+/-24.8 cm2 vs. 92.6+/-41.0 cm2, p<0.01) and the visceral fat to thigh fat area ratio (VSFTF ratio : 1.74+/-0.61 vs. 1.07+/-0.80, p<0.01). The visceral fat area was independently associated with fasting insulin (r=0.661, p<0.01), fasting glucose (r=0.490, p<0.05), the AUC of glucose (r=0.605, p<0.01), HDL cholesterol (r= -0.528, p<0.01) and triglyceride (r=0.483, p<0.05) in control group. After adjustment for visceral fat area, there were still significant differences in the fasting insulin, fasting glucose, AUC of insulin, AUC of glucose and the IG ratio between both groups. CONCLUSION: We observed significant increase in the visceral fat area and VSFTF ratio and decrease in thigh fat area in CAD group compared with age, BMI, WHR matched control group. The insulin resistance was observed in the CAD group. The visceral fat area and VSFTF ratio was associated with cardiovascular risk factors such as low HDL cholesterol and the insulin resistance in control group.
Angina Pectoris ; Area Under Curve ; Body Mass Index ; Chest Pain ; Cholesterol ; Cholesterol, HDL ; Cholesterol, LDL ; Coronary Artery Disease* ; Coronary Vessels* ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Exercise Test ; Fasting ; Glucose ; Glucose Tolerance Test ; Healthy Volunteers ; Humans ; Hyperlipidemias ; Hypertension ; Insulin ; Insulin Resistance ; Intra-Abdominal Fat* ; Male ; Plasma ; Risk Factors ; Sex Ratio ; Subcutaneous Fat, Abdominal ; Thigh ; Triglycerides ; Waist-Hip Ratio

BACKGROUND: The visceral fat accumulation, an important factor to increase the insulin resistance is known to be associated with coronary artery disease. We investigated the relation between visceral fat accumulation and the coronary artery disease. METHODS: The coronary artery disease (CAD) group included 14 patients (9 men and 5 women) with angina pectoris. All patients had typical chest pain, diagnosed as coronary artery disease with coronary angiogram or treadmill test. The patients with hypertension, hyperlipidemia, non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM), impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and taking any medication known to affect the insulin sensitivity were excluded. The control group included 24 healthy volunteers (11 men and 13 women) who were not taking any medication. We measured the visceral fat area, abdominal subcutaneous fat area, thigh muscle area and the thigh fat area with computed tomography (CT) in both groups. We measured the plasma lipid profile, plasma insulin and glucose level during the oral glucose tolerance test in both groups. RESULTS: There were no differences in the age, sex ratio, body mass index (BMI) and the waist to hip ratio (WHR) between both groups. The total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol were significantly higher in CAD group (p<0.001). The HDL cholesterol was significantly lower in CAD group (p<0.05). The fasting insulin, fasting glucose, area under curve (AUC) of the insulin and glucose, and the insulin to glucose (IG) ratio were significant higher in CAD group (p<0.001). There were significant differences between CAD group and the control group in the visceral fat area (94.2+/-19.1 cm2 vs. 76.5+/-34.3 cm2, p<0.05), thigh fat area (60.2+/-24.8 cm2 vs. 92.6+/-41.0 cm2, p<0.01) and the visceral fat to thigh fat area ratio (VSFTF ratio : 1.74+/-0.61 vs. 1.07+/-0.80, p<0.01). The visceral fat area was independently associated with fasting insulin (r=0.661, p<0.01), fasting glucose (r=0.490, p<0.05), the AUC of glucose (r=0.605, p<0.01), HDL cholesterol (r= -0.528, p<0.01) and triglyceride (r=0.483, p<0.05) in control group. After adjustment for visceral fat area, there were still significant differences in the fasting insulin, fasting glucose, AUC of insulin, AUC of glucose and the IG ratio between both groups. CONCLUSION: We observed significant increase in the visceral fat area and VSFTF ratio and decrease in thigh fat area in CAD group compared with age, BMI, WHR matched control group. The insulin resistance was observed in the CAD group. The visceral fat area and VSFTF ratio was associated with cardiovascular risk factors such as low HDL cholesterol and the insulin resistance in control group.
Angina Pectoris ; Area Under Curve ; Body Mass Index ; Chest Pain ; Cholesterol ; Cholesterol, HDL ; Cholesterol, LDL ; Coronary Artery Disease* ; Coronary Vessels* ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Exercise Test ; Fasting ; Glucose ; Glucose Tolerance Test ; Healthy Volunteers ; Humans ; Hyperlipidemias ; Hypertension ; Insulin ; Insulin Resistance ; Intra-Abdominal Fat* ; Male ; Plasma ; Risk Factors ; Sex Ratio ; Subcutaneous Fat, Abdominal ; Thigh ; Triglycerides ; Waist-Hip Ratio

No abstract available.

BACKGROUND: The insulin resistance is common in the patients with essential hypertension, even in the absence of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus(NIDDM) or hyperlipidemia. It is well known that the offspring of patients with NIDDM have shown less insulin sensitivity compared with that of normal parents. But it is not yet known whether the insulin resistance is common in the offspring of patients with essential hypertension in Korea, who have no hypertension, NIDDM and hyperlipidemia. The aims of this study were to find out whether the insulin resistance exist in the middle aged normal offspring of the patients with essential hypertension and whether the insulin resistance is dependent on the metabolic abnormalities such as the body mass index(BMI), obesity and hyperlipidemia. METHODS: The serum lipid profiles and oral glucose tolerance test were performed. The anthropometrical measurement was done. The abdominal CT scan at umbilicus level and thigh CT was performed in the 11 offspring of parents with essential hypertension(group I;male : 7, female : 4)and 24 offspring of parents without essential hypertension, NIDDM, ischemic heart disease and hyperlipidemia(group II; male : 9, female : 15). RESULTS: The average age of group I was 44.1+/-6.9 years, and that of the group II was 47.5+/-9.5 years. There were no significant differences in the blood pressure, weight, BMI, waist to hip ratio, waist to thigh ratio. And there were no significant differences in the serum cholesterol, triglyceride, HDL-cholesterol, serum Na, and plasma renin activities between both groups. Fasting plasma insulin and 2 hour insulin after 75gm glucose ingestion were significantly higher in group I than in group II(8.5+/-3.0mU/mL versus 5.0+/-1.8mU/mL, 61.6+/-31.7mU/mL versus 33.3+/-16.8mU/mL, p<0.05). The insulin sensitivity index was significantly lower in group I than in group II(355.1+/-92.6 versus 451.8+/-88.1, p<0.05). The visceral fat area was wider in group I than in group II(102.0+/-30.7cm2 versus 64.5+/-28.5cm2, p<0.05). The multiple regression analysis with the fasting plasma insulin and insulin sensitivity index as the dependent variables and family history of essential hypertension, visceral fat area and BMI as the predictor variables revealed that only the family history was associated with the fasting plasma insulin and insulin sensitivity index. CONCLUSIONS: The offspring of the parents with essential hypertension showed the insulin resistance with increased visceral fat area in comparison with the offspring of the parents without essential hypertension.
Blood Pressure ; Cholesterol ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 ; Eating ; Fasting ; Female ; Glucose ; Glucose Tolerance Test ; Humans ; Hyperlipidemias ; Hypertension ; Insulin Resistance* ; Insulin* ; Intra-Abdominal Fat ; Korea* ; Male ; Middle Aged* ; Myocardial Ischemia ; Obesity ; Parents* ; Plasma ; Renin ; Thigh ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Triglycerides ; Umbilicus ; Waist-Hip Ratio

Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) expressing neurons are distributed widely throughout the central and peripheral nervous systems. Due to its distribution and pharmacological studies, CGRP has been implicated to be involved in anxiety, fear and depression. In this study, alphaCGRP-knockout mice were used to assess the consequences of removing this neuropeptide to the mice behaviors. alphaCGRP-knockout mice performed equally as well as wild type mice in the light-dark transition test and in the elevated plus maze test of anxiety. alphaCGRP-null mice behaved similarly as wild-type mice in the Porsolt swim test of depression. They also exhibited normal learning and memory in the fear conditioning tasks. It is concluded that alphaCGRP is not essential for mice to be able to perform these tests, despite the presence of alphaCGRP in the relevant regions of the brain.
Animals ; Anxiety* ; Brain ; Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide ; Depression ; Learning ; Memory ; Mice* ; Neurons ; Neuropeptides ; Peripheral Nervous System

This study suggested a new EMG-signal-based evaluation method for knee rehabilitation that provides not only fragmentary information like muscle power but also in-depth information like muscle fatigue in the field of rehabilitation which it has not been applied to. In our experiment, nine healthy subjects performed straight leg raise exercises which are widely performed for knee rehabilitation. During the exercises, we recorded the joint angle of the leg andEMGsignals from four prime movers of the leg: rectus femoris (RFM), vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, and biceps femoris (BFLH). We extracted two parameters to estimate muscle fatigue from the EMG signals, the zero-crossing rate (ZCR) and amplitude of muscle tension (AMT) that can quantitatively assess muscle fatigue from EMG signals. We found a decrease in the ZCR for the RFM and the BFLH in the muscle fatigue condition for most of the subjects. Also, we found increases in theAMT for the RFM and the BFLH. Based on the results, we quantitatively confirmed that in the state of muscle fatigue, the ZCR shows a decreasing trend whereas theAMT shows an increasing trend. Our results show that both the ZCR and AMT are useful parameters for characterizing the EMG signals in the muscle fatigue condition. In addition, our proposed methods are expected to be useful for developing a navigation system for knee rehabilitation exercises by evaluating the two parameters in two-dimensional parameter space.
Exercise ; Healthy Volunteers ; Joints ; Knee* ; Leg ; Methods ; Muscle Fatigue* ; Muscle Tonus ; Quadriceps Muscle ; Rehabilitation*

BACKGROUND: The insulin resistance is reported as the independent risk factor of the DM and the ischemic heart disease. The association between the insulin resistance and the essential hypertension was reported at the various countries and races. We performed this study to know if the hypertensive patients show the increased insulin resistance than that of the normotensive persons and factors that influence the insulin resistance and the blood pressure. METHODS: The serum lipid profiles, OGTT, body habitus measurement and abdominal CT at umbilical level were performed in 24 hypertensive patients(male : 10, female : 14) and 45 normotensive persons(male : 19, female : 26) who showed the same distributions of age, sex, weight and body mass index(BMI). RESULTS: The average age of the hypertensive group was 49.1+/-7.9 years, and that of the normotensive group was 46.1+/-7.6 years(p>0.05). The average blood pressure of the hypertensive group was 152.2+/-14.2/98.4+/-6.4mmHg and that of the normotensive group was 116.8+/-9.4/78.2+/-49.mmHg(p<0.001). The hypertensive group had significantly higher area under curve(AUC) of glucose(246.8+/-30.4 Vs 219.2+/-32.2mg/dL.hr) and AUC of insulin(88.9+/-38.2 Vs 69.6+/-34.2microU/mL.hr) than the normotensive group(p<0.05), while there were no differences in the age, sex, weight, body mass index(BMI) and waist to hip ratio(WHR) between two groups. They had nodifferences in lipid profile and plasma renin activity. In CT assessment, the hypertensive group had significantly higher visceral fat to thigh muscle area ratio(VSFTM ratio)(0.61+/-0.29 Vs 0.47+/-0.20) and visceral fat to thigh muscle and fat area ratio(VSFTMF ratio)(0.27+/-0.10 Vs 0.22+/-0.13)(p<0.05), while they had same degree of visceral fat to subcutaneous fat area(VS) ratio and visceral fat area. The visceral fat area, VSFTM ratio, VS ratio, visceral fat area to thigh fat area ratio(VSFTF ratio) were positively correlated with AUC of insulin and AUC of glucose ordinary(p<0.05). After adjustment for plasma insulin, AUC of insulin, VS ratio, VSFTM ratio, age and BMI, the AUC of glucose was positively correlated with the diastolic blood pressure(R square=0.19, p <0.05) and the AUC of glucose and WTR were positively correlated with the systolic blood pressure(R square=0.26, p<0.05). THe subgroup over the 75 percentile of AUC of glucose, AUC of insulin and VSFTM ratio in study population had significantly higher odds ratio of the hypertension(OR of AUC of glusose : 5.8, OR of AUC of insulin : 3.2, OR of VSFTM ratio : 4.5, p<0.05). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the insulin resistance is more prevalent in the hypertensive patients and associated with the hypertension.
Area Under Curve ; Blood Pressure ; Body Weight ; Continental Population Groups ; Female ; Glucose ; Glucose Tolerance Test ; Hip ; Humans ; Hypertension* ; Insulin Resistance* ; Insulin* ; Intra-Abdominal Fat ; Myocardial Ischemia ; Odds Ratio ; Plasma ; Renin ; Risk Factors ; Subcutaneous Fat ; Thigh ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Protein-calories malnutrition is common among patients in the hospital. In particular, elderly patients with neurologic disorders has more risk of nutritional deficiency due to swallowing difficulty. Enteral tube feeding is more economical, physiological and immunological than parenteral nutrition for patients who have adequate gastrointestinal function. This study was conducted patients with neurologic disorders who received enteral nutrition at Asan Medical Center from February 1 to October 10, 2002. The control group (48 patients) were given traditional feeding methods 4 times a day while the treatment group (45 patients) were given improved feeding methods 3 times a day. We assessed nutritional status of patients and compared to both groups. We investigated body weight, serum albumin, hemoglobin, total lymphocyte count by means of nutrition markers. The objectives of this study is to reduce the time needed for nutritional requirement of patients without an increase in gastrointestinal intolerances. The results of this study are as follows: 1. Nutritional status of many patients in both groups were either malnourished or at risk for malnutrition. 2. The time to arrive to the nutritional requirements were 6.21 +/- 0.35 days for the control group and 4.24 +/- 0.52 days for the treatment group. The treatment group showed a significantly shorter amount of time. 3. The changes of the nutritional marker in the control group showed a significant drop in body weight, serum albumin and serum hemoglobin while the treatment group experienced a significant increase in body weight, serum albumin and total lymphocyte count. 4. Feeding intolerane such as diarrhea, high residual volume, ileus, nausea and vomiting were investigated. Diarrhea found in 25.1% (12 patients) of the control group and 22.2% (10 patients) of the treatment group and these findings are not significant.
Aged ; Body Weight ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Deglutition ; Diarrhea ; Enteral Nutrition* ; Feeding Methods ; Humans ; Ileus ; Lymphocyte Count ; Malnutrition ; Nausea ; Nervous System Diseases* ; Nutritional Requirements ; Nutritional Status ; Parenteral Nutrition ; Protein-Energy Malnutrition ; Residual Volume ; Serum Albumin ; Vomiting

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive motor neuron degenerative disease that clinically manifests both upper and lower motor neuron signs. However, it is unknown where and how the motor neuron degeneration begins, and conflicting hypotheses have been suggested. Recent advanced radiological techniques enable us to look into ALS neuropathology in vivo. Herein, we report a case with upper motor neuron-predominant ALS in whom the results of brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and myelin water fraction MRI suggest axonal degeneration.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis* ; Axons ; Brain ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging* ; Motor Neurons ; Myelin Sheath* ; Neuropathology ; Pathology ; Water*