1,721,096 research outputs found
The year in cardiology 2012: Focus on cardiovascular disease prevention
No full textCurrent data suggest that advances in cardiovascular (CV) treatment have resulted in significant reduction in CV mortality but also in prolongation of life with disability. Focus on CV prevention is likely to reverse this unfavourable trend. In this review we provide information on the new European guidelines on CV prevention and discuss biomarkers and vascular imaging techniques which can assist in refining CV risk prediction. Finally, we provide new information on lifestyle and pharmacological advances which are likely to result in significant CV risk reduction.© The Author 2013
The role of flow-mediated dilatation in the evaluation and development of antiatherosclerotic drugs
No full textPURPOSE OF REVIEW: The present article reviews the use of flow-mediated dilatation in clinical cardiovascular research. Its value as a surrogate tool for development of antiatherosclerotic drugs and noninvasive assessment of cardiovascular risk is also discussed. RECENT FINDINGS: Atherosclerosis remains the leading cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Development of new drugs is required to target both the evolution of this disease and its clinical consequences. Noninvasive measures of arterial function and structure have been widely used as intermediate phenotypes in clinical trials. Numerous studies have demonstrated the interplay between vascular risk factors and endothelial function as assessed by flow-mediated dilatation in children and adults. Additionally, a number of studies have documented the prognostic value of the method. SUMMARY: Detection of early arterial changes can prove particularly useful in clinical research for the development of antiatherosclerotic drugs. They permit identification of vascular toxicity as well as characterization of the safety and risk profile of a new cardiovascular treatment modality on vascular health. This approach is likely to prove cost-effective before embarking on large longitudinal studies to assess cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. © 2009 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Inflammatory disorders and atherosclerosis: new therapeutic approaches
No full textRecent evidence suggests that patients with chronic inflammatory disorders are at increased cardiovascular risk. A number of different mechanisms have been postulated to contribute to atherosclerotic disease progression in these patients including traditional cardiovascular risk factors, cytokine upregulation, immume mediated pathways and increased oxidative stress. Novel treatments target inflammatory pathways and have beneficial effect on rheumatic disease activity however; their impact on cardiovascular risk reduction remains unclear. Further longitudinal studies are required to assess the value of different therapeutic approaches on cardiovascular outcome of these patients
Body mass index and height from infancy to adulthood and carotid intima-media thickness at 60 to 64 years in the 1946 British Birth cohort study
No full textOBJECTIVE - : Atherosclerosis begins early in life and obesity is a key determinant. We investigated the role of body mass index (BMI) and height from infancy to adulthood in presenting with high adulthood carotid intima-media thickness. APPROACH AND RESULTS - : Odds ratios of BMI, and height Z scores at 2, 4, 6, 7, 11, 15, and 20 years, and changes between 2 and 4, 4 and 7, 7 and 15, and 15 and 20 years, for carotid intima-media thickness at 60 to 64 years in the upper quartile were estimated for 604 men and 669 women. Confounding by early-life environments, mediating by body size and cardiometabolic measures at 60 to 64 years, and effect modification were investigated. In men, there was positive association of BMI at 4 years (odds ratio, 1.256; 95% confidence interval, 1.026-1.538) and 20 years (1.282; 1.022-1.609), negative association of height at 4 years (0.780; 0.631-0.964), and negative association of height growth between 2 and 4 years (0.698; 0.534-0.913) with high carotid intima-media thickness. The childhood estimates were robust, but the estimate for BMI at 20 years was attenuated by adjustment for BMI at 60 to 64 years. The protective influence of greater early childhood height was strongest in those with the lowest systolic blood pressure at 60 to 64 years. In women, there was no pattern of association and all confidence intervals crossed 1. CONCLUSIONS - : Early childhood in men might be a sensitive developmental period for atherosclerosis, in which changes in BMI and height represent 2 distinct biological mechanisms. The maintenance of healthy weight in men from adolescence onward may be a useful strategy to avoid the atherosclerotic complications of adiposity tracking.</p
Childhood fat and lean mass: differing relations to vascular structure and function at age 8-9 years
No full textChildhood vascular phenotypes have differing associations with prenatal and postnatal growth
No full textObjective: In children aged 8--9 years, we examined the associations of linear and abdominal circumference growth during critical stages of prenatal and postnatal development with six vascular measurements commonly used as early markers of atherosclerosis and later cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk.Methods: In 724 children from the UK Southampton Women's Survey mother--offspring cohort, offspring length/height and abdominal circumference measurements were collected at 10 ages between 11 weeks’ gestation and age 8--9 years. Using residual growth modelling and linear regression, we examined the independent associations between growth and detailed vascular measures made at 8--9 years.Results: Postnatal linear and abdominal circumference growth were associated with higher childhood SBP and carotid--femoral pulse wave velocity, whereas prenatal growth was not. For example, 1SD faster abdominal circumference gain between ages 3 and 6 years was associated with 2.27 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.56--2.98] mmHg higher SBP. In contrast, faster abdominal circumference gain before 19 weeks’ gestation was associated with greater carotid intima--media thickness [0.009 mm (0.004--0.015) per 1SD larger 19-week abdominal circumference), whereas later growth was not. We found no strong associations between prenatal or postnatal growth and DBP or measures of endothelial function.Conclusion: Higher postnatal linear growth and adiposity gain are related to higher SBP and carotid--femoral pulse wave velocity in childhood. In contrast, faster growth in early gestation is associated with greater childhood carotid intima--media thickness, perhaps resulting from subtle changes in vascular structure that reflect physiological adaptations rather than subclinical atherosclerosis
Assessment of atherosclerosis: The role of flow-mediated dilatation
Full text linkEvidence suggests that endothelial dysfunction is on the causal pathway for both atherogenesis and destabilization of established plaques. In this review, the role of flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) as a non-invasive method to assess endothelial function is discussed. Technical modifications and development of analysis software have significantly improved the variability of the method. Following a strict standardized protocol enables reproducible measurements to be achieved and export of the technique from specialized laboratories to population studies and multicentre settings. Endothelial function assessed by FMD has been shown to be affected by cardiovascular risk factors, to be related to structural arterial disease and to cardiovascular outcome, validating its use for studying the pathophysiology of arterial disease. Numerous studies have also demonstrated that it is responsive to physiological and pharmacological interventions. Flow-mediated dilatation provides unique opportunities in drug development programmes to assess an early rapidly responsive signal of risk or benefit, complementing endpoints of structural arterial disease and cardiovascular outcomes that take much longer and are more expensive. © 2010 The European Society of Cardiology . All rights reserved
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
- …
