The conclusions drawn by this article contain special cases discussed before.”
“Background: The pathophysiology of transient global amnesia (TGA) is not fully understood. This study was conducted to identify the cardiovascular risk factors of TGA compared to those of transient ischemic attack (TIA) and normal controls, using a large number of subjects. In addition to the comparison of risk factors, an association

between the observed cardiovascular risk factors in the current study and a pathophysiological mechanism recently investigated was speculated upon. Materials and Methods: We performed a retrospective case-control study that compared 293 TGA patients to 632 TIA patients and 293 age-and sex-matched normal controls. Demographic details and cardiovascular risk factors were carefully recorded. Results: TGA patients had a significantly higher selleck kinase inhibitor prevalence of ischemic heart disease and hyperlipidemia; however, they had a lower prevalence of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, ischemic stroke and atrial fibrillation when

compared to TIA patients. When compared to age-and sex-matched normal controls, TGA patients also had a significantly higher prevalence of hyper-lipidemia, previous ischemic selleck screening library stroke and ischemic heart dis-ease. Conclusion: The cardiovascular risk factors identified in TGA patients in this study were different from those of previously reported studies. This disproportionate prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors may constitute possible evidence that TGA and TIA differ in their pathophysiological mechanism. In addition, some cardiovascular risk factors, such as hyperlipidemia and ischemic heart disease, should be regarded as possible risk factors of TGA. (C) 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel”
“Background: Thyroid peroxidase Apoptosis Compound Library order (TPO) is a dimeric membrane-bound enzyme of thyroid follicular cells, responsible for thyroid hormone biosynthesis. TPO

is also a common target antigen in autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD). With two active sites, TPO is an unusual enzyme, and thus there is much interest in understanding its structure and role in AITD. Homology modeling has shown TPO to be composed of different structural modules, as well as a propeptide sequence. During the course of studies to obtain homogeneous preparations of recombinant TPO for structural studies, we investigated the role of the large propeptide sequence in TPO. Methods: An engineered recombinant human TPO preparation expressed in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells lacking the propeptide (TPOpro; amino acid residues 21-108) was characterized and its properties compared to wild-type TPO.