In elderly patients with osteoporosis, PTH 1-84 accelerates fracture-healing in pelvic fractures and improves functional outcome.

Abstract-Orthostatic intolerance is a syndrome characterized by chronic orthostatic symptoms of light-headedness, fatigue, nausea, orthostatic tachycardia, and aggravated norepinephrine levels while standing. The aim of this study was to assess the protective effect of exercise endurance training on orthostatic symptoms and to examine its usefulness in the treatment of orthostatic intolerance. 2768 military recruits were screened for orthostatic intolerance by questionnaire. Tilt-table testing identified 36 cases of orthostatic intolerance out of the 2768 soldiers. Subsequently, 31 of these subjects with orthostatic intolerance entered a randomized, controlled trial. The patients were allocated randomly to either a "training" (3 months jogging) or a "control" group. The influence of exercise training on orthostatic intolerance was assessed by determination of questionnaire scores and tilt-table testing before and after intervention. After training, only 6 individuals of 16 still had orthostatic intolerance compared with 10 of 11 in the control group. The Fisher exact test showed a highly significant difference in diagnosis between the 2 groups (Pϭ0.008) at the end of the study. Analysis of the questionnaire-score showed significant interaction between time and group (Pϭ0.001). The trained subjects showed an improvement in the average symptom score from 1.79Ϯ0.4 to 1.04Ϯ0.4, whereas the control subjects showed no significant change in average symptom score (2.09Ϯ0.6 and 2.14Ϯ0.5, respectively). Our data demonstrate that endurance exercise training leads to an improvement of symptoms in the majority of patients with orthostatic intolerance. Therefore, we suggest that endurance training should be considered in the treatment of orthostatic intolerance patients.

Background: There is strong and consistent evidence that oxidative stress is crucially involved in the development of atherosclerotic vascular disease. Overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in mitochondria is an unifying mechanism that underlies micro-and macrovascular atherosclerotic disease. Given the central role of mitochondria in energy and ROS production, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is an obvious candidate for genetic susceptibility studies on atherosclerotic processes. We therefore examined the association between mtDNA haplogroups and coronary artery disease (CAD) as well as diabetic retinopathy.

BackgroundThe pivotal role of mitochondria in energy production and free radical generation suggests that the mitochondrial genome could have an important influence on the expression of multifactorial age related diseases. Substitution of T to C at nucleotide position 16189 in the hypervariable D-loop of the control region (CR) of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has attracted research interest because of its suspected association with various multifactorial diseases. The aim of the present study was to compare the frequency of this polymorphism in the CR of mtDNA in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD, n = 482) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM, n = 505) from two study centers, with healthy individuals (n = 1481) of Middle European descent in Austria.Methodology and Principal FindingsCR polymorphisms and the nine major European haplogroups were identified by DNA sequencing and primer extension analysis, respectively. Frequencies and Odds Ratios for the association between cases and controls were calculated. Compared to healthy controls, the prevalence of T16189C was significantly higher in patients with CAD (11.8% vs 21.6%), as well as in patients with T2DM (11.8% vs 19.4%). The association of CAD, but not the one of T2DM, with T16189C remained highly significant after correction for age, sex and body mass index (BMI) and was independent of the two study centers.Conclusions and SignificanceOur results show for the first time a significant association of T16189C with CAD in a Middle European population. As reported in other studies, in patients with T2DM an association with T16189C in individuals of European decent remains questionable.

Twenty-three-gauge vitrectomy in epiretinal membrane surgery is comparable with 20-gauge vitrectomy and is a safe method with a low complication rate. However, the incidence of postoperative hypotony is more frequent using the 23-gauge system.

Short-segment pedicle stabilisation, transpedicular disc resection and autologous cancellous bone grafting is performed in trauma patients being transferred to our trauma centre with thoracolumbar fracture/dislocations. A follow-up examination of 88 patients, who were operated during the years of 1985 ± 1992, took place after an average time of 5.6 years. Our results suggest that the earlier operative decompression and spine stabilisation takes place, the better is the recovery rate in patients with neurologic de®cits. The highest neurologic recovery rates were found in patients operated within 8 h after the initial trauma. High remission rates were still found, if the patients had been operated within 48 h. After this time there was no signi®cant dierence in the neurologic outcome compared to the time of operation.

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Unemployment has a negative effect on physical working capacity and mental health, depending on the duration of unemployment. Factors that facilitate or impede physical and mental health during unemployment should be identified in future studies.