Age at first birth in women is genetically associated with increased risk of schizophrenia

Prof. Paunio on PGC:n jäsenPrevious studies have shown an increased risk for mental health problems in children born to both younger and older parents compared to children of average-aged parents. We previously used a novel design to reveal a latent mechanism of genetic association between schizophrenia and age at first birth in women (AFB). Here, we use independent data from the UK Biobank (N = 38,892) to replicate the finding of an association between predicted genetic risk of schizophrenia and AFB in women, and to estimate the genetic correlation between schizophrenia and AFB in women stratified into younger and older groups. We find evidence for an association between predicted genetic risk of schizophrenia and AFB in women (P-value = 1.12E-05), and we show genetic heterogeneity between younger and older AFB groups (P-value = 3.45E-03). The genetic correlation between schizophrenia and AFB in the younger AFB group is -0.16 (SE = 0.04) while that between schizophrenia and AFB in the older AFB group is 0.14 (SE = 0.08). Our results suggest that early, and perhaps also late, age at first birth in women is associated with increased genetic risk for schizophrenia in the UK Biobank sample. These findings contribute new insights into factors contributing to the complex bio-social risk architecture underpinning the association between parental age and offspring mental health.Peer reviewe

The use of active melioidosis detect tm in early diagnosis of melioidosis in Hospital Tengku Ampuan Afzan and Hospital Sultanah Nurzahirah

NTRODUCTION: Melioidosis is endemic in Malaysia and an important cause of sepsis. Current gold standard for diagnosis is by culture method,but its long procedure will delay the treatment leading to hospital-related mortality.Thus,a good rapid test is needed to reduce its mortality burden. Recently, Active Melioidosis Detect (AMD)have been shown to be useful. OBJECTIVES: (1)To measure the sensitivity and specificity of AMD.(2)To study the sensitivity and specificity of early morning urine AMD compared to spot urine AMD. METHOD : A prospective cross-sectional study of clinically suspected melioidosis patients in HTAA and HSNZ from April until December 2018. Blood and urine samples were tested with AMD. Test results were analysed for sensitivity, specificity,positive predictive value and negative predictive value. RESULTS: A total of 89 patients were included in this study.The mean age is 52 years old, and 56.3% were male gender.64% of patients have diabetes mellitus.11 patients have positive blood culture for Bukholderia pseudomallei, 4 of them were tested positive for AMD.3 of them presented with septic shock (3.4%), however none died.The sensitivity of the AMD was 36.4% ([95% CI 12.4 to 68.4]) and the specificity was 66.7% ( [95% CI 46.0 to 82.8]) in all samples, with positive predictive value of 30.7% and negative predictive value of 72%.Blood samples have lower sensitivity of 9.1% ([95% CI 4.8 to 42.9]) with high specificity of 100% ([95% CI 84.5 to 100]). Urine spot samples have higher sensitivity compared to serum and morning urine, with 36.4% ([95%CI 12.4 to 68.4]) and specificity of 88.9% ([95% CI 69.7 to 97.1]). CONCLUSION: From this pilot study, this test requires further evaluation before incorporating as point of care assay