Fibrinogen, viscosity, and white blood cell count are major risk factors for ischemic heart disease. The Caerphilly and Speedwell collaborative heart disease studies.

BACKGROUND Recent studies have suggested that hemostatic factors and white blood cell count are predictive of ischemic heart disease (IHD). The relations of fibrinogen, viscosity, and white blood cell count to the incidence of IHD in the Caerphilly and Speedwell prospective studies are described. METHODS AND RESULTS The two studies have a common core protocol and are based on a combined cohort of 4,860 middle-aged men from the general population. The first follow-up was at a nearly constant interval of 5.1 years in Caerphilly and 3.2 years in Speedwell; 251 major IHD events had occurred. Age-adjusted relative odds of IHD for men in the top 20% of the distribution compared with the bottom 20% were 4.1 (95% confidence interval, 2.6-6.5) for fibrinogen, 4.5 (95% confidence interval, 2.8-7.4) for viscosity, and 3.2 (95% confidence interval, 2.0-4.9) for white blood cell count. Associations with IHD were similar in men who had never smoked, exsmokers, and current smokers, and the results suggest that at least part of the effect of smoking on IHD is mediated through fibrinogen, viscosity, and white blood cell count. Multivariate analysis shows that white blood cell count is an independent risk factor for IHD as is either fibrinogen or viscosity, or possibly both. Jointly, these three variables significantly improve the fit of a logistic regression model containing all the main conventional risk factors. Further, a model including age, smoking habits, fibrinogen, viscosity, and white blood cell count predicts IHD as well as one in which the three hemostatic/rheological variables are replaced by total cholesterol, diastolic pressure, and body mass index. CONCLUSION Jointly, fibrinogen, viscosity, and white blood cell count are important risk factors for IHD

Systematically missing confounders in individual participant data meta-analysis of observational cohort studies.

One difficulty in performing meta-analyses of observational cohort studies is that the availability of confounders may vary between cohorts, so that some cohorts provide fully adjusted analyses while others only provide partially adjusted analyses. Commonly, analyses of the association between an exposure and disease either are restricted to cohorts with full confounder information, or use all cohorts but do not fully adjust for confounding. We propose using a bivariate random-effects meta-analysis model to use information from all available cohorts while still adjusting for all the potential confounders. Our method uses both the fully adjusted and the partially adjusted estimated effects in the cohorts with full confounder information, together with an estimate of their within-cohort correlation. The method is applied to estimate the association between fibrinogen level and coronary heart disease incidence using data from 154,012 participants in 31 cohort

Creating comprehensive, youth-centered culturally appropriate sex education: What do young gay, bisexual and questioning men want?

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106604/1/Creating comprehensive, youth-centered culturally appropriate sex education What do young gay, bisexual and questioning men want.pd

Effect of weight loss on HDL-apoA-II kinetics in the metabolic syndrome

Reduced HDL (high-density lipoprotein) concentration in the MetS (metabolic syndrome) is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease and is related to defects in HDL-apoA-II (apolipoprotein A-II) kinetics. Dietary restriction is the most commonly used weight loss strategy. In the present study, we examined the effect of weight loss on HDL-apoA-II kinetics in men with the MetS at the start and end of a 16-week intervention trial of a hypocaloric low-fat diet (n=20) compared with a weight maintenance diet (n=15), using a stable isotope technique and compartmental modelling. The low-fat diet achieved a significant reduction (P<0.01) in BMI (body mass index), abdominal fat compartments and HOMA (homoeostasis model assessment) score compared with weight maintenance. Weight loss also significantly (P<0.05) decreased both the production rate (−23%) and FCR (fractional catabolic rate) (−12%) of HDL-apoA-II, accounting for a net decrease in apoA-II concentration (−9%). Reductions in the HDL-apoA-II production rate were significantly associated with changes in body weight (r=0.683, P<0.01), plasma triacylglycerols (triglycerides) (r=0.607, P<0.01) and, to a lesser extent, plasma insulin (r=0.440, P=0.059) and HOMA-IR (HOMA of insulin resistance) (r=0.425, P=0.069). Changes in the apoA-II FCR were also significantly associated with reductions in visceral adipose tissue mass (r=0.561, P=0.010). In conclusion, in obese men with the MetS, short-term weight loss with a low-fat low-caloric diet lowers plasma apoA-II concentrations by decreasing both the production and catabolism of HDL-apoA-II. The cardiometabolic significance of this effect on HDL metabolism remains to be investigated further

Augmented Atherogenesis in LDL Receptor Deficient Mice Lacking Both Macrophage ABCA1 and ApoE

ABCA1 protects against atherosclerosis by facilitating cholesterol efflux from macrophage foam cells in the arterial wall to extracellular apolipoprotein (apo) A-I. In contrast to apoA-I, apoE is secreted by macrophages and can, like apoA-I, induce ABCA1-mediated cholesterol efflux. Yet, the combined effect of macrophage ABCA1 and apoE on lesion development is unexplored.LDL receptor knockout (KO) mice were transplanted with bone marrow from ABCA1/apoE double KO (dKO) mice, their respective single KO's, and wild-type (WT) controls and were challenged with a high-fat/high-cholesterol diet for 9 weeks. In vitro cholesterol efflux experiments showed no differences between ABCA1 KO and dKO macrophages. The serum non-HDL/HDL ratio in dKO transplanted mice was 1.7-fold and 2.4-fold (p<0.01) increased compared to WT and ABCA1 KO transplanted mice, respectively. The atherosclerotic lesion area in dKO transplanted animals (650±94×10(3) µm(2)), however, was 1.9-fold (p<0.01) and 1.6-fold (p<0.01) increased compared to single knockouts (ABCA1 KO: 341±20×10(3) µm(2); apoE KO: 402±78×10(3) µm(2), respectively) and 3.1-fold increased (p<0.001) compared to WT (211±20×10(3) µm(2)). When normalized for serum cholesterol exposure, macrophage ABCA1 and apoE independently protected against atherosclerotic lesion development (p<0.001). Moreover, hepatic expression levels of TNFα and IL-6 were highly induced in dKO transplanted animals (3.0-fold; p<0.05, and 4.3-fold; p<0.001, respectively). In agreement, serum IL-6 levels were also enhanced in ABCA1 KO transplanted mice (p<0.05) and even further enhanced in dKO transplanted animals (3.1-fold as compared to ABCA1 KO transplanted animals; p<0.05).Combined deletion of macrophage ABCA1 and apoE results in a defect in cholesterol efflux and, compared to ABCA1 KO transplanted mice, elevated serum total cholesterol levels. Importantly, these mice also suffer from enhanced systemic and hepatic inflammation, together resulting in the observed augmented atherosclerotic lesion development

ASKAP HI imaging of the galaxy group IC 1459

© 2015 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. We present HI imaging of the galaxy group IC 1459 carried out with six antennas of the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder equipped with phased-array feeds. We detect and resolve HI in 11 galaxies down to a column density of ~1020 cm-2 inside a ~6 deg2 field and with a resolution of ~1 arcmin on the sky and ~8 kms-1 in velocity. We present HI images, velocity fields and integrated spectra of all detections, and highlight the discovery of three HI clouds - two in the proximity of the galaxy IC 5270 and one close to NGC 7418. Each cloud has an HI mass of ~109 M? and accounts for ~15 per cent of the HI associated with its host galaxy. Available images at ultraviolet, optical and infrared wavelengths do not reveal any clear stellar counterpart of any of the clouds, suggesting that they are not gas-rich dwarf neighbours of IC 5270 and NGC 7418. Using Parkes data, we find evidence of additional extended, low-column-density HI emission around IC 5270, indicating that the clouds are the tip of the iceberg of a larger system of gas surrounding this galaxy. This result adds to the body of evidence on the presence of intragroup gas within the IC 1459 group. Altogether, the HI found outside galaxies in this group amounts to several times 109 M?, at least 10 per cent of the HI contained inside galaxies. This suggests a substantial flow of gas in and out of galaxies during the several billion years of the group's evolution