The contribution of a 9p21.3 variant, a KIF6 variant, and C-reactive protein to predicting risk of myocardial infarction in a prospective study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Genetic risk factors might improve prediction of coronary events. Several variants at chromosome 9p21.3 have been widely reported to be associated with coronary heart disease (CHD) in prospective and case-control studies. A variant of <it>KIF6 </it>(719Arg) has also been reported to be associated with increased risk of CHD in large prospective studies, but not in case-control studies. We asked whether the addition of genetic information (the 9p21.3 or <it>KIF6 </it>variants) or a well-established non-genetic risk factor (C-reactive protein [CRP]) can improve risk prediction by the Framingham Risk Score (FRS) in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS)--a prospective observational study of risk factors for cardiovascular disease among > 5,000 participants aged 65 or older.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Improvement of risk prediction was assessed by change in the area under the receiver-operator characteristic curve (AUC) and by net reclassification improvement (NRI).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Among white participants the FRS was improved by addition of <it>KIF6 </it>719Arg carrier status among men as assessed by the AUC (from 0.581 to 0.596, P = 0.03) but not by NRI (NRI = 0.027, P = 0.32). Adding both CRP and 719Arg carrier status to the FRS improved risk prediction by the AUC (0.608, P = 0.02) and NRI (0.093, P = 0.008) in men, but not women (P ≥ 0.24).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>While none of these risk markers individually or in combination improved risk prediction among women, a combination of <it>KIF6 </it>719Arg carrier status and CRP levels modestly improved risk prediction among white men; although this improvement is not significant after multiple-testing correction. These observations should be investigated in other prospective studies.</p

Beyond equilibrium climate sensitivity

ISSN:1752-0908ISSN:1752-089

Inter-process buffers in separation logic with rely-guarantee

Separation logic allows simple proofs of concurrent algorithms which use blocking mechanisms such as semaphores. It can even deal with non-blocking algorithms. With the addition of mechanisms borrowed from rely-guarantee, we can make reasonably simple proofs of some simple non-blocking algorithms. We show that it extends to proofs of some intricate algorithms, including Simpson’s famous asynchronous four-slot buffer and Harris’s novel three-slot algorithm, in a manner that is arguably simpler than earlier treatments, though we cannot claim that we have yet found proofs that are as simple as we would wish. Our example proofs show functional correctness but do not deal with questions of liveness