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Objective: The association between circulating betatrophin levels and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is controversial. The aim of our study was to systematically review available literature linking betatrophin to GDM for a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between circulating betatrophin levels and GDM in human. Methods: PubMed, The Cochrane Library, Medline and CNKI were searched for studies published up to August 2016. Manual searches of references of the relevant original studies were conducted. Pooled estimates were measured using the fixed or random effect model. Overall effect was reported in a standard mean difference (SMD). All data were analyzed with Review Manager 5.3 and Stata 12.0. Results: Of 25 references reviewed, 8 studies met our inclusion criteria and contributed to meta-analysis. All the studies were used to evaluate the relationship between betatrophin levels in blood and GDM. Betatrophin levels were significantly elevated in women with GDM compared with those without GDM (SMD = 1.05; 95% CI: 0.41–1.68, P = 0.001). This evidence was more consistent among women with betatrophin blood draw during the third trimester (SMD = 1.3, 95% CI: 1–1.61, P < 0.001) and for women BMI ≥ 28 kg/m2 (SMD = 1.53, 95% CI: 1.30–1.75, P < 0.001). Conclusions: The evidences from this meta-analysis indicated that the levels of circulating betatrophin were significantly elevated among women with GDM compared with women with normal glucose tolerance, especially with BMI ≥ 28 kg/m2 and in the third trimester. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Second-generation drug-eluting stents (DESs) have become increasingly popular devices for patients with saphenous vein graft (SVG) disease. Second-generation DESs were designed to have more safety and efficacy than first-generation DES, but clinical outcomes in SVG disease remain conflicting. Methods and results Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were identified when comparing second- versus first-generation DESs in SVG disease. The main endpoint was all-cause death. The time of follow-up was at least 30 days. The secondary endpoints were major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs), target vessel revascularization (TVR), target lesion revascularization (TLR), myocardial infarction (MI), and stent thrombosis. These endpoints were assessed at 30 days, 12 months and 24 months. Four RCTs with 1077 SVG patients undergoing the implantation of DES were collected in the current meta-analysis. As a result, second-generation DES-treated patients had the significantly lower MACE rates at 12 months (P = 0.03; OR: 0.69, 95% CI: 0.49,0.97). No differences in two groups were seen in all-cause death, MI, TVR, stent thrombosis and TLR. Conclusions Our limited evidence indicated that, second-generation DES in SVG patients, compared with first-generation DES, offered similar levels of safety, but were more effective than the former one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]