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Background: Although the association between tinnitus and temporo‐mandibular disorders (TMD) has been frequently reported, their rate of association in the literature shows a great variability. Objective: We aimed to investigate the prevalence of TMD in patients with somatosensory tinnitus and, vice versa, the occurrence of somatosensory tinnitus in patients with TMD. Methods: The study included patients with somatosensory tinnitus (audiological group) and patients with TMD (stomatological group), evaluated at the audiologic and stomatologic clinics of the Policlinic Hospital of Milan, Italy. Common causes of tinnitus, such as hearing and neurological disorders, were excluded. A cervicogenic somatic tinnitus was also ruled out. Different TMD symptoms, including joint noise and joint pain, were considered. The collected data were analysed using descriptive statistical methods, and the Pearson's Chi‐squared test was performed to study the prevalence of the different symptoms by clinical groups. Results: Audiological group included 47 patients with somatosensory tinnitus. Overall, TMD was diagnosed in 46 patients (97.8%), including TMJ noise in 37 (78.7%), clenching in 41 (87.2%) and pain in 7 (14.8%) patients. Stomatological group included 50 patients with TMD, including joint noise in 32 (64.0%), clenching in 28 (56.0%) and TMJ pain in 42 (84.0%) patients. A somatosensory tinnitus was diagnosed in 12 (24.0%) patients. Conclusion: Our study showed a high prevalence of TMD in patients with tinnitus, as well as a not uncommon occurrence of tinnitus in patients presenting with TMD. The distribution of TMD symptoms, such as joint noise, and joint pain was different between the two groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is little information regarding the nutritional requirements for dairy heifers, leading the majority of nutrient requirement systems to consider dairy heifers to be similar to beef heifers. Therefore, we evaluated the muscle protein metabolism and physical and chemical body composition of growing Holstein × Gyr heifers and estimated the energy and protein requirements. We performed a comparative slaughter experiment with 20 Holstein × Gyr heifers at an initial body weight of 218 ± 36.5 kg and an average age of 12 ± 1.0 months. Four heifers were designated as the reference group, and the 16 remaining heifers were fed ad libitum. The 16 heifers were distributed using a completely randomized design in a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement with two roughages (corn silage or sugarcane) and two concentrate levels (30 or 50%) for 112 days. Greater (p < 0.05) values for fractional rates of muscle protein synthesis, degradation and accretion were observed for heifers that were fed 50% concentrate. The following equations were obtained to estimate the net energy for gain ( NEg) and net protein for gain ( NPg): NEg (Mcal/day) = 0.0685 × EBW0.75 × EBWG1.095 and NPg (g/day) = 203.8 × EBWG − 14.80 × RE, respectively, in which EBW is the empty body weight, EBWG is the empty body weight gain and RE is the retained energy. We concluded that increased rates of protein turnover are achieved when a greater quality diet is provided. In the future, these results can be used to calculate the nutritional requirements for growth of Holstein × Gyr heifers after equation validation rather than using the recommendations provided by other systems, which use values developed from beef heifers, to determine the nutritional requirements of dairy cattle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the editor in response to the article related to a study on placement of endoscopic ventilation in the pediatric age in the previous issue is presented.

Background We recently reported a link between plasma levels of 2 of 84 cardiovascular disease (CVD)-related proteins and the 3 major CVDs, myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, and heart failure. The present study investigated whether measurement of almost 10 times the number of proteins could lead to discovery of additional risk markers for CVD. Methods and Results We measured 742 proteins using the proximity extension assay in 826 male participants of ULSAM (Uppsala Longitudinal Study of Adult Men) who were free from CVD at the age of 70 years. Cox proportional hazards models were adjusted for age only, as well as all traditional risk factors. During a 12.5-year median follow-up (maximal, 22.0 years), 283 incident CVDs occurred. Forty-one proteins were significantly (false discovery rate <0.05) related to the combined end point of incident CVD, with N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide as the top finding, while 53 proteins were related to incident myocardial infarction. A total of 13 and 16 proteins were significantly related to incident ischemic stroke and heart failure, respectively. Growth differentiation factor 15, 4-disulfide core domain protein 2, and kidney injury molecule were related to all of the 3 major CVD outcomes. A lasso selection of 11 proteins improved discrimination of incident CVD by 5.0% ( P =0.0038). Conclusions Large-scale proteomics seem useful for the discovery of new risk markers for CVD and to improve risk prediction in an elderly population of men. Further studies are needed to replicate the findings in independent samples of both men and women of different ages.

Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have allowed researchers to identify thousands of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and other variants associated with particular complex traits. Previous studies have reported differences in the strength and even the direction of GWAS signals across different populations. These differences could be due to a combination of (1) lack of power, (2) allele frequency differences, (3) linkage disequilibrium (LD) differences, and (4) true differences in causal variant effect sizes. To determine whether properties (1)-(3) on their own might be sufficient to explain the patterns previously noted in strong GWAS signals, we simulated case-control data of European, Asian and African ancestry, applying realistic allele frequencies and LD from 1000 Genomes data but enforcing equal causal effect sizes across populations. Much of the observed differences in strong GWAS signals could indeed be accounted for by allele frequency and LD differences, enhanced by the Euro-centric SNP bias and lower SNP coverage found in older GWAS panels. While we cannot rule out a role for true transethnic effect size differences, our results suggest that strong causal effects may be largely shared among human populations, motivating the use of transethnic data for fine-mapping., (© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/University College London.)

Objectives: The population analysis of cardiovascular risk and non-risk genetic variation can help to identify adaptive or random demographic processes that shaped coronary incidence variation across geography., Material and Methods: In this study, 114 single nucleotide polymorphisms and 17 tandem repeat polymorphisms from Nitric Oxide Synthases (NOS) regions were analyzed in 1686 individuals from 35 populations from Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. NOS genes encode for key enzymes on nitric oxide availability, which is involved in several cardiovascular processes. These genetic variations were used to test for selection and to infer the population structure of NOS regions. Moreover, we tested whether the variation in the incidence of coronary events and in the levels of classical risk factors in 11 of these European populations could be explained by the population structure estimates., Results: Our results supported, first, the absence of clear signs of selection for NOS genetic variants associated with cardiovascular diseases, and second, the presence of a continuous genetic pattern of variation across European and North African populations without a Mediterranean barrier for gene flow. Finally, population structure estimates from NOS regions are closely correlated with coronary event rates and classical risk parameters (explaining 39-98%) among European populations., Conclusion: Our results reinforce the hypothesis that genetic bases of cardiovascular diseases and associated complex phenotypes could be geographically shaped by random demographic processes., (© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Objectives: The aim of this study is to determine whether the LIN28B gene is differentially distributed in the Mediterranean region through the analysis of the allele distribution of three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), namely rs7759938, rs314277, and rs221639, in 24 populations. These SNPs have been recently related to the age at menarche, pubertal height growth, peripubertal body mass index, levels of prenatal testosterone exposure, and cancer survival., Methods: A total of 1,197 DNA samples were genotyped. The allele frequencies were used to determine the relationship between populations, with data from the 1000 Genomes Project being used for external comparisons. The genotype distributions and the population structure between populations and groups of populations were determined., Results: The population results indicate a significant degree of variation (F ST  = 0.043, P < 0.0001). Allele frequencies show significant differences among populations. A hierarchical variance analysis is consistent with a primary differentiation between populations on the North and South coasts of the Mediterranean. This difference is especially evident in the unexpected distribution of the SNP rs221639, which shows one of the highest F ST (11.5%, P < 0.0001) values described in the Mediterranean region thus far., Conclusion: The population differentiation and the structuring of the genetic variance, in agreement with previous studies, indicate that the SNPs in question are good tools for the study of human populations, even at a microgeographic level. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 28:905-912, 2016. © 2016Wiley Periodicals, Inc., (© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)