Search

NAD + is a redox-active metabolite, the depletion of which has been proposed to promote aging and degenerative diseases in rodents. However, whether NAD + depletion occurs in patients with degenerative disorders and whether NAD + repletion improves their symptoms has remained open. Here, we report systemic NAD + deficiency in adult-onset mitochondrial myopathy patients. We administered an increasing dose of NAD + -booster niacin, a vitamin B3 form (to 750-1,000 mg/day; clinicaltrials.govNCT03973203) for patients and their matched controls for 10 or 4 months, respectively. Blood NAD + increased in all subjects, up to 8-fold, and muscle NAD + of patients reached the level of their controls. Some patients showed anemia tendency, while muscle strength and mitochondrial biogenesis increased in all subjects. In patients, muscle metabolome shifted toward controls and liver fat decreased even 50%. Our evidence indicates that blood analysis is useful in identifying NAD + deficiency and points niacin to be an efficient NAD + booster for treating mitochondrial myopathy., Competing Interests: Declaration of Interests A.S. has filed a patent application for a method that allows NAD(+) analysis from the blood and tissue samples. C.B. is the inventor of intellectual property on the nutritional and therapeutic uses of NR. He serves as chief scientific advisor of ChromaDex, which licensed, developed, and commercialized NR technologies and holds stock in ChromaDex. The other authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The purpose of this study was to evaluate transvaginal sonography and curettage in the diagnosis of endometrial malignancy in women with peri-, and postmenopausal bleeding. Diagnostic curettage has been the method of choice to diagnose endometrial cancer. The purpose of this study was also to evaluate the value of transvaginal sonography in decreasing the number of curettages, because the costs of curettage are huge today and only 10% of the women in this group will be diagnosed with endometrial cancer. Transvaginal sonography was performed on 353 women with peri- or postmenopausal bleeding before curettage. Endometrial malignancy was found in 42 patients, in 12/242 (5%) of women aged less than 60 years and 30/111 (27%) of women aged 60 years or more. All the patients with endometrial cancer had an endometrial thickness of 6 mm or more measured by transvaginal sonography. The sensitivity of ultrasound to detect malignancy was 100%, the specificity was 43.4%, the positive and negative predictive values were 19.2% and 100%. If the limit of 6 mm of endometrial thickness had been used in this study, 38.2% of the curettages could have been avoided.

Cytologic smears were obtained from 272 women shown, during a mass screening program, to have histologically proven severe dysplasia, carcinoma in situ or invasive squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix. These smears were scrutinized with special attention to the detection of the cytologic pattern recently established as diagnostic of condyloma virus infection in the genital tract. The results disclosed positive cytologic findings in a considerable percentage of the smears studied, in contrast to an absolute failure to demonstrate any cytologic evidence of the presence of genital herpesvirus infection. The frequency figures of the positive findings were in accordance with the previously established frequency figures of histologically verified condylomatous lesions, thus confirming the applicability of the cytologic criteria used. The significance of the findings is discussed in the light of cervical carcinogenesis, and the conclusion is drawn that one should seriously consider the possibility that the virus behind the condylomatous lesions is the agent responsible for, or contributing to, the development of uterine cervical carcinoma.