However, there were no significant differences in allele

and genotype frequency between the schizophrenic patients and normal controls in all three ethnic groups. Our current findings suggest that the Val158Met polymorphism has a weak association with schizophrenia in the Malaysian population and does not play a major role in conferring susceptibility to the schizophrenia in any of the three major local ethnicities. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Frailty is the most problematic expression of population ageing. It is a state of vulnerability to poor resolution of homoeostasis after a stressor event and is a consequence of cumulative decline in many physiological systems during a lifetime. This cumulative decline depletes homoeostatic reserves until minor stressor events trigger disproportionate changes in health status. In landmark

studies, investigators AZD9291 solubility dmso have developed valid models of frailty and these models have allowed epidemiological investigations that show the association between frailty and adverse health outcomes. We need to develop more efficient methods to detect frailty and measure its severity in routine clinical practice, especially methods that are useful for primary care. Such progress would greatly inform the appropriate selection of elderly people www.selleckchem.com/products/epz-6438.html for invasive procedures or drug treatments and would be the basis for a shift in the care of frail elderly people

towards more appropriate goal-directed care.”
“Development of reliable diagnostic bio-markers for schizophrenia remains a diagnostic challenge. Serum NGF and IL-2 were analyzed to examine the diagnostic efficiency and predictive capability of these two biomarkers in relation to schizophrenia diagnosis. Thirty neuroleptic naive subjects with first-episode schizophrenia. thirty patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and twenty-eight healthy control subjects participated in the study. One-way ANOVA demonstrated significantly lower serum IL-2 and NGF among schizophrenic patients and patients with MDD compared with healthy controls. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to ascertain diagnostic Tucidinostat efficiency of serum IL-2 and NGF levels. Area under the ROC curve (AUC) revealed a high level of differentiation between schizophrenic patients and healthy controls for both IL-2 and NGF serum concentrations. Diagnostic efficiency of combined NGF and IL-2 serum levels was also high in schizophrenic patients compared with healthy controls. Serum NGF and IL-2 are promising as potential screening or diagnostic biomarkers for schizophrenia and may be a useful adjunct for clinical assessment. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.