Atherosclerosis: A Journey around the Terminology

The term atherosclerosis underwent a tedious pathway to arrive at its current status and interpretation. Furthermore, terms such as atherosclerosis, arteriosclerosis and arteriolosclerosis appear similar and are misused interchangeably. This chapter highlighted the various terminologies linked with atherosclerosis. This chapter highlighted how the terminology of atherosclerosis evolved and, also, the various classifications, e.g., atherosclerosis, Monckeberg calcific sclerosis and arteriolosclerosis, and gave mention to the differences among them

A 45-year old man with recurrent syncope: an unusual presentation of coronary artery disease

A 45-year old normotensive, euglycaemic, non-smoker was referred from a peripheral hospital to the Cardiology unit of the University College Hospital, Nigeria for evaluation of recurrent exercise induced syncope. Initial 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG), 24-hr ambulatory ECG, transthoracic echocardiogram and electroencephalogram (EEG) were normal. A repeat episode of syncope warranted further investigation. Immediate post syncope ECG showed deeply inverted symmetrical T waves in the anterior leads. He underwent coronary angiogram which revealed distal left main disease and 70-80% stenosis of the proximal Left Anterior Descending Artery (LAD). The Circumflex artery was non dominant with normal Right Coronary artery. He subsequently had Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty (PTCA) of the LAD. Post-revascularisation course has been satisfactory with no recurrence of syncope. In view of the rising trend of cardiac death in the country, there is the need for high index of suspicion in making diagnosis of coronary artery disease in patients with syncope.Pan African Medical Journal 2013; 14: 7

Inclusion in the World Health Organization Model List of Essential Medicines of Non-Vitamin K Anticoagulants for Treatment of Non-Valvular Atrial Fibrillation: A Step Towards Reducing the Burden of Cardiovascular Morbidity and Mortality.

Non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) represent a paradigm shift in the treatment of non-valvular atrial fibrillation (AF) with major practice guidelines around the world recommending NOACs over vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants for initial treatment of AF for stroke prevention. Here we describe the evidence collated and the process followed for the successful inclusion of NOACs into the 21st WHO Model List of Essential Medicines (EML). Individual NOACs have been reported to be non-inferior or superior to warfarin in preventing stroke and systemic embolism in eligible AF patients with a reduction in the risk of stroke and systemic embolism and a lower risk of major bleeding in patients with non-valvular AF compared with warfarin in both RCTs and real-world data. The successful inclusion of NOACs in the WHO EML is an important step forward in the global fight against cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, especially in low- and middle-income countries, where the burden of disease is high and limited access to diagnosis and treatment translates into a higher burden of morbidity, mortality, and economic costs

Mapping local patterns of childhood overweight and wasting in low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2017

A double burden of malnutrition occurs when individuals, household members or communities experience both undernutrition and overweight. Here, we show geospatial estimates of overweight and wasting prevalence among children under 5 years of age in 105 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) from 2000 to 2017 and aggregate these to policy-relevant administrative units. Wasting decreased overall across LMICs between 2000 and 2017, from 8.4% (62.3 (55.1–70.8) million) to 6.4% (58.3 (47.6–70.7) million), but is predicted to remain above the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target of <5% in over half of LMICs by 2025. Prevalence of overweight increased from 5.2% (30 (22.8–38.5) million) in 2000 to 6.0% (55.5 (44.8–67.9) million) children aged under 5 years in 2017. Areas most affected by double burden of malnutrition were located in Indonesia, Thailand, southeastern China, Botswana, Cameroon and central Nigeria. Our estimates provide a new perspective to researchers, policy makers and public health agencies in their efforts to address this global childhood syndemic

Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background: In an era of shifting global agendas and expanded emphasis on non-communicable diseases and injuries along with communicable diseases, sound evidence on trends by cause at the national level is essential. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) provides a systematic scientific assessment of published, publicly available, and contributed data on incidence, prevalence, and mortality for a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive list of diseases and injuries. Methods: GBD estimates incidence, prevalence, mortality, years of life lost (YLLs), years lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) due to 369 diseases and injuries, for two sexes, and for 204 countries and territories. Input data were extracted from censuses, household surveys, civil registration and vital statistics, disease registries, health service use, air pollution monitors, satellite imaging, disease notifications, and other sources. Cause-specific death rates and cause fractions were calculated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model and spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression. Cause-specific deaths were adjusted to match the total all-cause deaths calculated as part of the GBD population, fertility, and mortality estimates. Deaths were multiplied by standard life expectancy at each age to calculate YLLs. A Bayesian meta-regression modelling tool, DisMod-MR 2.1, was used to ensure consistency between incidence, prevalence, remission, excess mortality, and cause-specific mortality for most causes. Prevalence estimates were multiplied by disability weights for mutually exclusive sequelae of diseases and injuries to calculate YLDs. We considered results in the context of the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite indicator of income per capita, years of schooling, and fertility rate in females younger than 25 years. Uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated for every metric using the 25th and 975th ordered 1000 draw values of the posterior distribution. Findings: Global health has steadily improved over the past 30 years as measured by age-standardised DALY rates. After taking into account population growth and ageing, the absolute number of DALYs has remained stable. Since 2010, the pace of decline in global age-standardised DALY rates has accelerated in age groups younger than 50 years compared with the 1990–2010 time period, with the greatest annualised rate of decline occurring in the 0–9-year age group. Six infectious diseases were among the top ten causes of DALYs in children younger than 10 years in 2019: lower respiratory infections (ranked second), diarrhoeal diseases (third), malaria (fifth), meningitis (sixth), whooping cough (ninth), and sexually transmitted infections (which, in this age group, is fully accounted for by congenital syphilis; ranked tenth). In adolescents aged 10–24 years, three injury causes were among the top causes of DALYs: road injuries (ranked first), self-harm (third), and interpersonal violence (fifth). Five of the causes that were in the top ten for ages 10–24 years were also in the top ten in the 25–49-year age group: road injuries (ranked first), HIV/AIDS (second), low back pain (fourth), headache disorders (fifth), and depressive disorders (sixth). In 2019, ischaemic heart disease and stroke were the top-ranked causes of DALYs in both the 50–74-year and 75-years-and-older age groups. Since 1990, there has been a marked shift towards a greater proportion of burden due to YLDs from non-communicable diseases and injuries. In 2019, there were 11 countries where non-communicable disease and injury YLDs constituted more than half of all disease burden. Decreases in age-standardised DALY rates have accelerated over the past decade in countries at the lower end of the SDI range, while improvements have started to stagnate or even reverse in countries with higher SDI. Interpretation: As disability becomes an increasingly large component of disease burden and a larger component of health expenditure, greater research and developm nt investment is needed to identify new, more effective intervention strategies. With a rapidly ageing global population, the demands on health services to deal with disabling outcomes, which increase with age, will require policy makers to anticipate these changes. The mix of universal and more geographically specific influences on health reinforces the need for regular reporting on population health in detail and by underlying cause to help decision makers to identify success stories of disease control to emulate, as well as opportunities to improve. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 licens

Letter to the Editor: The burden of burnout and effect on cardiovascular diseases and risk predisposition: a call for action

No Abstrac

Relationship between Burnout, Cardiovascular Risk Factors, and Inflammatory Markers: A Protocol for Scoping Review

Background: Burnout is increasingly being recognized as a contributory factor to the erosion of a positive psychological state. Studies have examined the relationship between burnout and various inflammatory markers such as IL-1, IL-6, and TNF-alpha. Burnout is also associated with increased systemic inflammation along a continuum of symptom severity. This protocol is for a scoping review looking at the link between burnout, inflammatory markers, and cardiovascular risks or diseases. Methods: This study will be based on the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses guidelines/checklists and the report of the review will be based on the same guideline. The study seeks to address the following principal questions. (i) What are the relevant inflammatory biomarkers that mediate cardiovascular risk factors in burnout? (ii) How do inflammatory biomarkers mediate cardiovascular risk factors in burnout? The outputs obtained from the literature search will be deduplicated using the Rayyan software. Results: We would create table summaries of findings to inform a narrative synthesis of the evidence from the papers included. Conclusion: The review article would help to concisely synthesize the available evidence on the relationship between burnout, inflammatory markers, and cardiovascular diseases

Author Correction: Mapping local patterns of childhood overweight and wasting in low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2017 (Nature Medicine, (2020), 26, 5, (750-759), 10.1038/s41591-020-0807-6)

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper