Saint Louis University

About: Saint Louis University is a education organization based out in St Louis, Missouri, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Health care. The organization has 18927 authors who have published 34895 publications receiving 1267475 citations. The organization is also known as: SLU & St. Louis University.

Mutations in TMPRSS6 cause iron-refractory iron deficiency anemia (IRIDA).

Abstract: Iron deficiency is usually attributed to chronic blood loss or inadequate dietary intake. Here, we show that iron deficiency anemia refractory to oral iron therapy can be caused by germline mutations in TMPRSS6, which encodes a type II transmembrane serine protease produced by the liver that regulates the expression of the systemic iron regulatory hormone hepcidin. These findings demonstrate that TMPRSS6 is essential for normal systemic iron homeostasis in humans.

Vagus nerve stimulation for treatment of partial seizures: 1. A controlled study of effect on seizures. First International Vagus Nerve Stimulation Study Group.

Abstract: Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) was shown to reduce seizure frequency in refractory epilepsy patients in two pilot studies. Based on these results, a multicenter, prospectively randomized, parallel, double-blind study of patients with refractory partial seizures was initiated. After a 12-week baseline period, identical vagus nerve stimulators were implanted and patients randomized to either a high or low 14-week VNS treatment paradigm. The primary objective was to demonstrate that high VNS (therapeutic parameters) was more effective in reducing partial seizure frequency than was low VNS (less or noneffective parameters). Patients continued receiving antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) with plasma concentrations held constant throughout the study. We report results of the first 67 patients to exit the 14-week acute phase. After 14 weeks of VNS, 31 patients receiving high VNS experienced a mean seizure frequency percentage reduction of 30.9%, which was statistically significant as compared with the mean seizure frequency percentage reduction of 11.3% in 36 patients receiving low VNS (p = 0.029, t test; p = 0.036, Wilcoxon rank-sum test). In addition to the significant intragroup p-values, mean seizure frequency percentage change reached statistical significance for high VNS (p < 0.001) but not low VNS (p = 0.072) as compared with baseline. Twelve of 31 (38.7%) patients receiving high VNS achieved at least 50% reduction in seizure frequency whereas 7 of 36 (19.4%) patients receiving low VNS experienced at least 50% reduction after 14 weeks. The implant procedure and VNS therapy were well tolerated. Our study confirmed the effectiveness of VNS as treatment for epilepsy patients with refractory partial seizures.

Forecasting the Equity Risk Premium: The Role of Technical Indicators

Abstract: Academic research relies extensively on macroeconomic variables to forecast the U.S. equity risk premium, with relatively little attention paid to the technical indicators widely employed by practitioners. Our paper fills this gap by comparing the forecasting ability of technical indicators with that of macroeconomic variables. Technical indicators display statistically and economically significant in-sample and out-of-sample forecasting power, matching or exceeding that of macroeconomic variables. Furthermore, technical indicators and macroeconomic variables provide complementary information over the business cycle: technical indicators better detect the typical decline in the equity risk premium near business-cycle peaks, while macroeconomic variables more readily pick up the typical rise in the equity risk premium near cyclical troughs. Consistent with this behavior, we show that combining information from both technical indicators and macroeconomic variables significantly improves equity risk premium forecasts versus using either type of information alone. Overall, the substantial countercyclical fluctuations in the equity risk premium appear well captured by the combined information in technical indicators and macroeconomic variables.

Focused Cardiac Ultrasound in the Emergent Setting: A Consensus Statement of the American Society of Echocardiography and American College of Emergency Physicians

Abstract: The use of ultrasound has developed over the last 50 years into an indispensable first-line test for the cardiac evaluation of symptomatic patients. The technologic miniaturization and improvement in transducer technology, as well as the implementation of educational curriculum changes in residency training programs and specialty practice, have facilitated the integration of focused cardiac ultrasound into practice by specialties such as emergency medicine. In the emergency department, focused cardiac ultrasound has become a fundamental tool to expedite the diagnostic evaluation of the patient at the bedside and to initiate emergent treatment and triage decisions by the emergency physician.

COMPASS: A complex of proteins associated with a trithorax-related SET domain protein

Abstract: The trithorax genes encode an evolutionarily conserved family of proteins that function to maintain specific patterns of gene expression throughout cellular development. Members of this protein family contain a highly conserved 130- to 140-amino acid motif termed the SET domain. We report the purification and molecular identification of the subunits of a protein complex in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae that includes the trithorax-related protein Set1. This protein complex, which we have named COMPASS (Complex Proteins Associated with Set1), consists of seven polypeptides ranging from 130 to 25 kDa. The same seven proteins were identified in COMPASS purified either by conventional biochemical chromatography or tandem-affinity tagging of the individual subunits of the complex. Null mutants missing any one of the six nonessential subunits of COMPASS grow more slowly than wild-type cells under normal conditions and demonstrate growth sensitivity to hydroxyurea. Furthermore, gene expression profiles of strains missing either of two nonessential subunits of COMPASS are altered in similar ways, suggesting these proteins have similar roles in gene expression in vivo. Molecular characterization of trithorax complexes will facilitate defining the role of this class of proteins in the regulation of gene expression and how their misregulation results in the development of human cancer.