Serum beta-2 microglobulin concentration predicts cardiovascular and all-cause mortality.

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Chronic diseases: challenges and opportunities

postprintThe 2010 International Conference on Promoting Chronic Care, Hong Kong, 8-10 January 2010

Non-invasive score identifies ultrasonography-diagnosed non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and predicts mortality in the USA

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The relationship between glucose metabolism, metabolic syndrome, and bone-specific alkaline phosphatase: A structural equation modeling approach.

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The relationship between glucose metabolism, metabolic syndrome, and bone-specific alkaline phosphatase: a structural equation modelling approach

PosterINTRODUCTION: Serum alkaline phosphatase plays a role in vascular calcification. It is found in various tissues, whereas bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (BAP) more specifically reflects mineral metabolism. The relationship of serum alkaline phosphatase (total and bone-specific) with diabetes and metabolic syndrome, which are two major risk factors of vascular calcification, is largely unknown. We aimed to investigate the relationships between glucose metabolism, components of metabolic syndrome (MetS), and alkaline …published_or_final_versio

Frailty, comorbidity, disability and poor self-rated health: prevalence of overlaps amongst the oldest-old adults from the Hong Kong Centenarian Study.

Posters - Scientific Research (Epidemology)INTRODUCTION: The frailty phenotype includes five characteristics: fatigue, weakness, poor endurance, physical illness and weight loss. Frailty correlates strongly with comorbidity and disability, but their interaction with selfrated health (SRH) amongst the oldest-old adults remains unclear. We examined the prevalence of overlap between frailty, comorbidity, disability and poor SRH amongst the oldest-old adults …published_or_final_versio

Comprehensive Index of Frailty: a multi-dimensional construct from the Hong Kong Centenarian Study

This journal suppl. entitled: 20th Medical Research Conference; Department of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong KongINTRODUCTION: Frailty is a global epidemiological and clinical phenomenon that can lead to poor long-term outcome. A better understanding of its components is essential for future developments of management strategies. We sought to assess the incremental validity of a new Comprehensive Index of Frailty over Frailty …published_or_final_versio

Urotensin II: Its function in health and its role in disease

Urotensin II (U-II) is the most potent vasoconstrictor known, even more potent than endothelin-1. It was first isolated from the fish spinal cord and has been recognized as a hormone in the neurosecretory system of teleost fish for over 30 years. After the identification of U-II in humans and the orphan human G-protein-coupled receptor 14 as the urotensin II receptor, UT, many studies have shown that U-II may play an important role in cardiovascular regulation. Human urotensin II (hU-II) is an 11 amino acid cyclic peptide, generated by proteolytic cleavage from a precursor prohormone. It is expressed in the central nervous system as well as other tissues, such as kidney, spleen, small intestine, thymus, prostate, pituitary, and adrenal gland and circulates in human plasma. The plasma U-II level is elevated in renal failure, congestive heart failure, diabetes mellitus, systemic hypertension and portal hypertension caused by liver cirrhosis. The effect of U-II on the vascular system is variable, depending on species, vascular bed and calibre of the vessel. The net effect on vascular tone is a balance between endothelium-independent vasoconstriction and endothelium-dependent vasodilatation. U-II is also a neuropeptide and may play a role in tumour development. The development of UT receptor antagonists may provide a useful research tool as well as a novel treatment for cardiorenal diseases. © 2005 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.postprin

International trends in the rate of logistic mortality increase

Meeting Theme: Are sex differences in health expectancy a social issue?BACKGROUND: Thatcher et al. (2010) used the simple logistic model with two parameters, which is known to fit data on old-age mortality well (Thatcher 1999), to investigate the old-age mortality compression and estimated the rate of logistic mortality increase, denoted by b, for ages 70-90. They concluded that if logit m(x) tends to fall faster at younger ages, then the slope b of the logit line will become steeper and mortality compression will occur. In this paper, we aim to estimate the rate of logistic mortality increase, denoted by b, for ages 70-90 in 23 countries with good and acceptable quality of data from Human Mortality Database and examine whether there is a universal trend in b. METHODS: We adopt a special case of the logistic model of mortality, which has only two parameters as does the Lexis model, and it is usually written in the form of model (1) μ(x) = a ebx / (1 + a ebx) (1) RESULTS: Our results show that the rate of logistic increase has steadily risen for females and males from about 0.10 in the 1950s to about 0.13 in recent years for most established market-economy countries in Europe as shown in group A (19 European countries). Among males, the value of parameter b is about 0.02 smaller than that for females and the rate of logistic mortality increase always lags behind females about 20 years. However, for Japanese females, although the increase was similar to the common pattern from 0.10 in 1947 to 0.13 in 1984, then the value of parameter b reached the highest 0.14 and became levelling off in the decade 1984-1995. Afterwards, it reverted to the level of 1984. In Canada, b increased at a relatively slower pace from 0.10 in 1950 to 0.12 in 2006 among females, whereas in the US the value of b tended to stay at 0.10-0.11 throughout the whole period 1921-2006. In Australia, b for females fluctuated around 0.10-0.11 before 1980, then a noticeable increase was observed from 0.12 in 1980 to 0.14 in 2007. CONCLUSIONS: The results show that the rate of logistic increase has steadily risen for females and males from about 0.10 in the 1950s to about 0.13 in recent years for most established market-economy countries. Deviant patterns such as slow increase, plateau and decrease are observed for some periods in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Japan and the USA. Possible reasons for those dominant and deviant trends are discussed.postprin

Arthur Roger Thatcher's contributions to longevity research: A Reflexion

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