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Objectives: To evaluate the effects of pioglitazone on insulin sensitivity and levels of biomarkers associated with thrombotic risk in overweight and obese, non‐diabetic subjects with coronary artery disease. Background: Little information is available regarding the effects of thiazolidinediones in the absence of diabetes. Further, although postprandial hyperlipemia is a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, there is limited information about the postprandial effects. Methods: Twenty overweight and obese, non‐diabetic patients with coronary artery disease were enrolled in a randomized, placebo‐controlled, double‐blind study. Subjects were on atorvastatin for the duration of the study and received either placebo or pioglitazone (45 mg day−1) for 12 weeks and then crossed over to the alternative therapy for an additional 12 weeks. Insulin sensitivity, fasting and postprandial levels of lipid, hemostatic, and inflammatory variables were measured, and endothelial function was assessed. Results: Insulin sensitivity improved from 0.03 μmol kg−1·min pm−1on placebo to 0.04 on pioglitazone (P= 0.0002), and there were decreases in fasting levels of factor (F) VII:C (102 ± 17% to 92 ± 18%, P= 0.001), FVII:Ag (68 ± 12% to 60 ± 14%, P= 0.01) and in von Willebrand factor (VWF) (174 ± 94% to 142 ± 69%, P= 0.01). Pioglitazone lowered postprandial levels of FVII:Ag, FVII:C, plasminogen activator inhibitor‐1, VWF, and triglycerides, and increased high‐density lipoproteins (+9%, P= 0.02). Conclusions: Pioglitazone improves insulin sensitivity and favorably modifies fasting and postprandial lipid, hemostatic and inflammatory markers of the metabolic syndrome in overweight and obese non‐diabetic patients with coronary artery disease.

Surgery is an effective, high-cost procedure used increasingly to treat refractory epilepsy. For surgery to be cost-effective, long-term cost savings from reduced health care use should provide some offset to the initial costs of evaluation and surgery. There is little information about how health care costs are affected by evaluation and surgery.

To investigate whether serially assessed epidermal nerve fiber (ENF) density and quantitative sensory thresholds (QSTs) are associated with the clinical transition from HIV infection with no neuropathy or asymptomatic neuropathy to symptomatic distal sensory neuropathy (SDSP).

Batten disease (juvenile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis JNCL) is an autosomal recessive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by blindness, seizures, and relentless decline in cognitive, motor, and behavioral function. Onset is in the early school years, with progression to death typically by late adolescence. Development of a clinical instrument to quantify severity of illness is a prerequisite to eventual assessment of experimental therapeutic interventions