Letter to the Study by Hyvonen et al. on Moisture Damage and MCS

Due to the significant methodological problems in the empirical part of the paper and the very selective literature review, the conclusions of the paper are mostly unsupported.Non peer reviewe

Long-term clinical outcome of elderly patients with acute coronary syndrome treated with early percutaneous coronary intervention : Insights from the BASE ACS randomized controlled trial Bioactive versus everolimus-eluting stents in elderly patients

Background: The BASE ACS trial demonstrated an outcome of titanium-nitride-oxide-coated bioactive stents (BAS) that was non-inferior to everolimus-eluting stents (EES) in patients presenting with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). We performed a post hoc analysis of elderly versus non-elderly patients from the BASE ACS trial. Methods: We randomized 827 patients (1:1) presenting with ACS to receive either BAS or EES. The primary end-point was major adverse cardiac events (MACE): a composite of cardiac death, non-fatal myocardial infarction (MI), or ischemia-driven target lesion revascularization (TLR). Follow-up was planned at 12 months and yearly thereafter for up to 7 years. Elderly age was defined as >= 65 years. Results: Of the 827 patients enrolled in the BASE ACS trial, 360 (43.5%) were elderly. Mean follow-up duration was 4.2 +/- 1.9 years. MACE was more frequent in elderly versus younger patients (19.7% versus 12.0%, respectively, p = 0.002), probably driven by more frequent cardiac death and non-fatal MI events (5.3% versus 1.5%, and 9.7% versus 4.5%, p = 0.002 and p = 0.003, respectively). The rates of ischemia-driven TLR were comparable (p > 0.05). In propensity score-matched analysis (215 pairs), only cardiac death was more frequent in elderly patients (6% versus 1.4%, respectively, p = 0.01). Diabetes independently predicted both MACE and cardiac death in elderly patients. Conclusions: Elderly patients treated with stent implantation for ACS had worse long-term clinical outcome, compared with younger ones, mainly due to a higher death rate. (C) 2016 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

Carbon Footprint Reduction with Car-Sharing Service – A Case Study

Abstract This paper reviews how much a car-sharing service can reduce CO2 emissions. Based on literature and a case study, an estimation of CO2 emissions is made. The studied vehicle fleet consists mostly of vehicles with an internal combustion engine (ICEV), and hence the potential reduction of CO2 emissions with this kind of fleet is very limited. Propositions for more sustainable vehicle fleet are made and the potential of car-sharing service in Finland is discussed. The results show that users are replacing sustainable transport modes (walking, cycling) with car-sharing services. Replacing ICEVs with battery electric vehicles (BEV) would allow 31 % decrease in CO2 emissions. However, this would require major changes to the fleet.Abstract This paper reviews how much a car-sharing service can reduce CO2 emissions. Based on literature and a case study, an estimation of CO2 emissions is made. The studied vehicle fleet consists mostly of vehicles with an internal combustion engine (ICEV), and hence the potential reduction of CO2 emissions with this kind of fleet is very limited. Propositions for more sustainable vehicle fleet are made and the potential of car-sharing service in Finland is discussed. The results show that users are replacing sustainable transport modes (walking, cycling) with car-sharing services. Replacing ICEVs with battery electric vehicles (BEV) would allow 31 % decrease in CO2 emissions. However, this would require major changes to the fleet

Risk of adult-onset asthma increases with the number of allergic multimorbidities and decreases with age

Background The aim was to study the association between allergic multimorbidity and adult-onset asthma considering the number of allergic diseases and the age effect. Methods We used population-based data from Finnish national registers including 1205 adults over 30 years of age with recently diagnosed asthma (age range: 30-93), matched for gender, age, and living region with one or two controls (n = 2050). Allergic rhinitis (AR), allergic conjunctivitis (AC), and allergic dermatitis (AD) were defined from self-completed questionnaire. Conditional logistic regression adjusted on potential confounders (smoking, growing in countryside, childhood hospitalized infection/pneumonia, parental asthma/allergy, parental smoking, education level, professional training, number of siblings, and birth order) was applied to estimate the asthma risk associated with allergic multimorbidity. Results A total of 1118 cases with asthma and 1772 matched controls were included [mean (SD, min-max) 53 (11, 31-71) years, 37% men)]. AR, AC, and AD were reported by 50.2%, 39.6%, and 33.8%, respectively, among subjects with asthma and 26.1%, 20.0%, and 23.5%, respectively, among controls. Compared to nonatopics, adult-onset asthma increased with the number of allergic diseases; adjusted OR for asthma [95% CI] associated with 1, 2, and 3 allergic diseases was 1.95 [1.52-2.49], 2.87 [2.19-3.77], and 4.26 [3.07-5.90], respectively. The association between adult-onset asthma and >= 1 allergic multimorbidity decreased with increasing age (3.52 [2.51-4.94], 2.44 [1.74-3.42], and 1.68 [1.04-2.71]) in subjects 62 years, respectively (p for age*>= 1 allergic multimorbidity interaction, 0.002). Conclusions Adult-onset asthma was positively associated with the number of allergic diseases, and this association decreases with age.Peer reviewe