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Background: The effect of adalimumab and fumaric acid esters (FAE) on the cardiovascular risk associated with psoriasis has only been investigated scarcely in randomized controlled studies. Objective: The aim of this prospective, randomized controlled head‐to‐head trial was to compare the influence of adalimumab and FAE on cardiovascular disease markers in psoriasis patients. Methods: Sixty‐five patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis were randomly assigned to adalimumab or FAE treatment for 6 months. Cardiovascular haemodynamic parameters [flow‐mediated dilation (FMD), nitro‐glycerine mediated dilation (NMD) and carotid intima–media thickness (CIMT), blood pressure] were assessed at baseline (v0) and after 6 months (v6). Cutaneous disease severity, inflammatory and lipid cardiovascular risk markers were analysed at baseline(v0), after 3 (v3) and 6 months (v6). Results: After 6 months of treatment FMD in the adalimumab group increased significantly [v0 5.9% (6.4% SD), v6 8.0% (4.8% SD), P = 0.048) but not in the FAE group. (v0 7.0% (4.1% SD), v6 8.4% (6.1% SD), P = 0.753]. This was paralleled by a significant decrease of high sensitive C‐reactive protein (hsCRP) in the adalimumab group in comparison to the FAE group (v0: 0.39 mg/dL (0.38 SD), v6: 0.39 mg/dL (0.48 SD), P = 0.043). No significant changes were observed in any other haemodynamic parameters. FAE, however, additionally decreased total cholesterol (P = 0.046) and apolipoprotein B (P = 0.041) levels compared to adalimumab. Mean Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (psoriasis area severity score) reduction was greater but not significant (P = 0.116) under adalimumab treatment compared to FAE treatment [−71.1% (29.9 SD) vs. −54.6% (45.7%)]. Conclusion: In our study, both treatments were documented to exert effects on the cardiovascular system. While adalimumab showed anti‐inflammatory effects and improved FMD, FAE interacted favourably with the cholesterol metabolism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sodium citrate, sodium erythorbate, sodium citrate plus sodium erythorbate, sodium citrateunwashed channel catfish mince. Washing reduced (P ≤ 0.05) lipids and increased (P ≤ 0.05) Hunter 'L' value (lightness) of mince. Thiobarbituric reactive substances and free fatty-acid changes during frozen storage were reduced in the washed mince. Addition of antioxidants did not significantly improve the overall quality and shelf-life of the frozen mince. Washing did not have an effect on the fatty-acid composition of neutral and phospholipids in the mince. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deconvolution technique of the compound action potential of the auditory nerve consists of a first deconvolution with the unit response, a logarithmic transformation, a second deconvolution with the normalized discharge pattern, and a linear transformation. The simplifying assumptions contained in the process are valid for infinitely short stimuli: The inherent error is growing with increasing duration of the stimulus signal. Similar assumptions can be made for stimuli of sufficiently narrow bandwidth if one interchanges the nonlinear transformation and the second deconvolution. Under these conditions, the error will be within tolerable limits. Application of this method would mean a considerable improvement in the evaluation of compound action potentials elicited by low-frequency tone pulses (carrier frequency < 1000 Hz). The principle and limits of the method are outlined, its efficiency with human compound action potentials elicited by Gaussian tone pulses are shown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A statistical analysis of a weighted averaging procedure for the estimation of small signals buried in noise (Hoke et al. 1984a) is given. The weighting factor used by this method is in inverse proportion to the variance estimated for the noise. It is shown that, compred to conventional averaging, weighted averaging can improve the signal-to-noise ratio to a high extent if the variance of the noise changes as a function of time. On the other hand, uncritical application of the method involves the danger that the signal amplitude is underestimated. How serious this effect is depends on the number of degrees of freedom available for the estimation of the weighting factor. The effect can be neglected, if this number is sufficiently increased by means of an appropriate preprocessing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability of the polysulfonated antitumor drug suramin and six related polysulfonated azo dyes to inhibit the cell growth, platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-receptor binding, and intracellular Ca2+ signaling of Swiss 3T3 fibroblasts was studied. Some of the azo dyes were more potent inhibitors of PDGF binding than was suramin. The concentration giving 50% inhibition (IC50) of PDGF binding was 0.5 microM for the most potent azo dye as compared with 10 microM for suramin. The azo dyes were generally more potent inhibitors of nonmitochondrial Ca2+ uptake and of inositol(1,4,5)trisphosphate-mediated Ca2+ release in permeabilized Swiss 3T3 cells than was suramin, and they were more potent inhibitors of PDGF-induced Ca2+ signaling in intact Swiss 3T3 cells. The azo dyes were only as effective as or less effective than suramin in inhibiting the growth of Swiss 3T3 cells, with IC50 values of between 74 and 361 microM being noted for the dyes as compared with 70 microM for suramin. The difference between the growth-inhibitory activity of the azo dyes and that of suramin could not be explained by metabolism of the compounds, which was not detectable in either Swiss 3T3 cells or human liver slice preparations. The results suggest that suramin and some of the azo dyes have actions on cell growth in addition to inhibition of growth factor binding and of Ca2+ signaling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability of dextran sulfates of varying molecular sizes (5-500 kDa) and degrees of sulfate substitution (0.3-1.9) to inhibit the binding of platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) to intact Swiss 3T3 fibroblasts and to inhibit inositol(1,4,5)trisphosphate-dependent release of Ca2+ in permeabilized Swiss 3T3 cells was examined in the present study. Significant correlations were found between increased molecular size of the dextran sulfates and inhibition of both PDGF binding (r = 0.77) and Ca2+ release (r = 0.72). The degree of sulfate substitution did not correlate with inhibition of either activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The compound action potential of the auditory nerve can be conceived as a convolution integral of the firing probability densities of the auditory nerve fibres and a unit response. The probability densities can be derived directly - that means bypassing a time consuming model of the mechanical to neural transduction - from the displacement of the basilar membrane, regarding the response of the basilar membrane as the input of a cascade of nonlinearities. In particular we investigated the influence of an absolute refractory period on the probability of firing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Basing on model investigations as well as on theoretical considerations, a method for the processing of frequency-specific information contained in compound action potentials has been developed. This approach consists in doint the reserve process of the physiological formation of compound action potentials. Result of this method is the neural excitation pattern (in the location domain, i.e., as a function of frequency) at the level of primary auditory neurons. Processing originally recorded human compound APs as well, as derived APs could prove the outlined approach. Significance and limits of the method and its impact for clinical application are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The generation of distortion products in response to two-tone stimuli is one of numerous nonlinear phenomena as observed in the spike discharge patterns of single auditory nerve fibers. The mechanical to neural transduction has been cited as one possible source of these distortions. In the present paper we studied the distortion products generated in a mathematical model of an auditory nerve fibre based upon the Bonhoeffer-Van-der-Pol system of differential equations, which is a simplification of the well-known Hodgkin-Huxley system. Our model transforms arbitrary analogue inputs into a spike train. To account for spontaneous activity a Gaussian Noise is added internally. The model which is realized on a general purpose computer has been investigated for several two-tone stimuli. Analysing the model output by means of period histogramms we could detect besides others the cubic distortion product 2fL - fH. The results are compared with the known properties of primary auditory neurons and those of other nerve fibre models. [Work supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]