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Background: To compare the choriocapillary flow density (CFD) among the fellow eyes of polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV), neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD), and healthy controls using spectral-domain optical coherence angiography tomography (SD-OCTA).Methods: This is a cross-sectional study that includes the fellow eyes of 38 patients with unilateral PCV, 36 patients with unilateral nAMD, and 36 eyes from 36 healthy volunteers. The PCV group was further classified into polypoidal CNV (P-CNV) and typical PCV (T-PCV) for subgroup analysis. The age, subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT), Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) classification, and fellow eye diagnosis were acquired. All subjects underwent SD-OCTA with a 6.0-mm scan pattern. Circles with radius of 1.00, 1.50, and 3.00 mm were manually selected in the choriocapillaris (CC) slab, and the CFD was calculated as the percentage of the flow area to the whole selected area as CFD-1.00, 1.50, and 3.00, respectively. Univariate and multivariate analysis were performed to study the correlation between the aforementioned factors with CFD.Results: The mean CFD-1.00, 1.50, and 3.00 of the nAMD group were 61.51, 63.18, and 66.20, respectively; these were significantly lower than those of the PCV group (65.90, 66.89, and 67.94; P < 0.001, P < 0.001, and P = 0.010; respectively) and control group (66.28, 66.96, and 68.42; P < 0.001, P < 0.001, and P = 0.001, respectively), and no difference was detected between the PCV and control group or between PCV subtypes. The AREDS classification and fellow eye diagnosis were correlated with CFD in univariate analysis; however, only the fellow eye diagnosis showed a significant correlation after multiple linear regression.Conclusions: The CFD of nAMD fellow eyes was significantly lower than that of PCV and control eyes, and no difference was detected between PCV and control group, indicating that CC loss plays a different role in the early pathogenesis of nAMD and PCV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Little research has been conducted on the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic and the sexual intercourse habits of men who have sex with men (MSM) in crowded places, both locally and abroad. This study conducted a survey of MSM in different locales of Inner Mongolia to provide a reference for developing strategies or measures to prevent and control HIV among this understudied population.Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of men aged 18 years and older at different venues popular among MSM in Inner Mongolia. Between April and July 2012, MSM volunteered to participate in this study, receive HIV/syphilis testing, and complete a questionnaire about their behavior. A total of 1611 MSM participated. Participants signed a voluntary informed consent form, completed an anonymous questionnaire and were tested for HIV and syphilis antibodies.Results: Of the 1611 MSM surveyed, 6.83 and 23.65 % had HIV and syphilis, respectively, and the co-infection rate was 3.17 %. Sociodemographic factors such as age, culture, marital status, knowledge of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) transmission, and peer education significantly differed between venues (P < 0.01). MSM who were under 22 years, 23-35 years, and over 36 years primarily contacted their potential partners online, at bars/other (streetwalkers), and at public baths/parks, respectively. MSM partners found in bars, in public baths, in parks and online were primarily high school students and technical secondary school students. MSM who were streetwalkers or cross-dressing male sex workers primarily had junior middle school education levels or below. Married MSM primarily had intercourse in public baths and parks, and MSM who had intercourse in public baths and parks also reported the greatest proportions of intercourse with women (39.1 and 35.0 %, respectively). Furthermore, MSM who had intercourse in parks reported having the most anal sex with same-sex partners and unprotected intercourse in the past 6 months. Unprotected intercourse with women in the past 6 months was also common among MSM who met partners in bathhouses or online. MSM were most likely to have anal sex with other men in public baths. MSM who had intercourse in bars were the least likely to have used a condom with female partners in the past 6 months. The culture of the MSM who had frequent intercourse with streetwalkers and cross-dressing male sex workers did not predict behavior.Conclusion: This study indicated that AIDS-related risky behaviors as well as HIV and syphilis infection were associated with the different locations frequented by MSM. When developing intervention strategies for AIDS, it is better to conduct targeted health education and behavioral interventions at bars/online for MSM aged 23-35 years and at public baths/parks for MSM over 36 years. Additionally, the current survey showed that information on AIDS/sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) must be popularized to reach streetwalkers and cross-dressing male sex workers, whose mobility limits their attainment of higher levels of health education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both imprinting and maternal effects could lead to parent-of-origin patterns in complex traits of human disorders. Statistical methods that differentiate these two effects and identify them simultaneously by using family-based data from retrospective studies are available. The usual data structures include case-parents triads and nuclear families with multiple affected siblings. We develop a likelihood-based method to detect imprinting and maternal effects simultaneously using data from prospective studies. The proposed method utilizes both affected and unaffected siblings in nuclear families by modeling familial genotypes and offspring's disease status jointly. Maternal effect is usually modeled as a fixed effect under the assumption that maternal variant allele(s) has (have) identical effect on any offspring. However, recent studies report that different people may carry different amounts of substances encoded by the mother's variant allele(s) (called maternal microchimerism), which could result in heterogeneity of maternal effects. The proposed method incorporates the heterogeneity of maternal effects by adding a random component to the logit of the penetrance. Our method was applied to the Framingham Heart Study data in two steps to detect single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that may be associated with high blood pressure. In the first step, SNPs that affect susceptibility of high blood pressure through minor allele, genomic imprinting, or maternal effects were identified by using the proposed model without the random effect component. In the second step, we fitted the mixed effect model to the identified SNPs that have significant maternal effect to detect heterogeneity of the maternal effects.