Objective: Investigate the nature of the relationship between chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and metabolic syndrome among nondiabetic adults. Methods: This was a cross-sectional analysis of 17,030 nondiabetic adults (7437 males and 9593 females; mean age, 36.0 6 3.9 years) in northern Taiwan from 2008 to 2009. The associations of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) seropositivity with metabolic syndrome and cardio-metabolic parameters were assessed. A structural equation model was constructed to elucidate the pathways between chronic HBV infection and individual cardiometabolic risk factors. Results: A total of 2982 (17.5%) participants were HBsAg-seropositive. Of the seropositive and seronegative subjects, 15.5 and 16.9% had metabolic syndrome, respectively. The HBsAg-seropositive subjects had a lower odds of having metabolic syndrome compared with the seronegative subjects irrespective of gender and age (OR: 0.76, 95% CI: 0.68-0.85). The inverse associations remained significant after adjusting for body mass index and serum alanine aminotransferase levels. HBsAg seropositivity was inversely associated with hypertriglyceridemia (OR: 0.59, 95% CI: 0.52-0.66), and low serum levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (OR: 0.86, 95% CI: 0.79-0.93) after adjustments. The structural equation model revealed chronic HBV infection had a significant negative effect on dyslipidemia both in males (B 5 20.054) and females (B 5 20.064). Conclusions: The inverse relationship between chronic HBV infection and metabolic syndrome may be attributable to the net beneficial effects on lipid profiles.

The fluorescence and phosphorescence of 2,2'-bis(5-phenyl-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-yl)biphenyl shows good spectral matching with the absorption spectra of the MLCT1 and MLCT3 transitions of Ir(ppy)3. The red-shift of the 0-0 band in the phosphorescence at 77 K is due to the intramolecular pi-pi interactions between the oxadiazole side chains. Maximum brightness of 43,000 cd/m2 with an efficiency of 26 cd/A at 200 cd/m2 was achieved when BOBP was used as the host material for Ir(ppy)3 in the PHOLED study. [structure: see text].

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Determining the visceral fat amount is important in the risk stratification for the prevention of type 2 diabetes and obesity-related disorders. The area-based measurement of visceral fat area (VFA) via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an accurate but expensive and time-consuming method for estimating visceral fat amount. The aim of our study was to identify a practical predictive parameter for visceral obesity in clinical settings.In this cross-sectional study, we recruited 51 nondiabetic obese (body mass index [BMI] ≥ 27 kg/m2) adults in Taiwan (21 men and 30 women, mean age 35.6 ± 9.2 years, mean BMI 33.3 ± 3.9 kg/m2). VFA was quantified by a single-slice MRI image. Anthropometric indices and biochemical parameters including fasting plasma glucose, serum level of alanine aminotransferase, and lipid profiles were measured. The associations between different variables and VFA were analyzed by linear regression analysis.Increases in BMI, waist circumference, serum levels of alanine aminotransferase and triglycerides (TGs), and decreased serum levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol were correlated with larger VFA. After adjustment for age, sex, and anthropometric indices, only serum TG level remained as an independent correlate of VFA. Besides demographic and anthropometric indices, adding TG level may explain a greater variance of VFA. In stepwise multivariate regression analysis, male sex, age, waist circumference, and serum TG level remained significant predictors of VFA. In a subgroup analysis among subjects with BMI ≥30 kg/m2, similar results were demonstrated and serum TG level remained as significant independent correlates of VFA in all of the predictive models.Among nondiabetic obese adults, serum TG level was positively associated with VFA. The combination of sex, age, anthropometric indices, and serum TG level may be used to estimate VFA in clinical settings.