Advanced communications techniques

Research results obtained under the Advanced Communications Techniques grant are introduced through a list of lectures and papers

Differences in genomic abnormalities among African individuals with monoclonal gammopathies using calculated ancestry

Multiple myeloma (MM) is two- to three-fold more common in African Americans (AAs) compared to European Americans (EAs). This striking disparity, one of the highest of any cancer, may be due to underlying genetic predisposition between these groups. There are multiple unique cytogenetic subtypes of MM, and it is likely that the disparity is associated with only certain subtypes. Previous efforts to understand this disparity have relied on self-reported race rather than genetic ancestry, which may result in bias. To mitigate these difficulties, we studied 881 patients with monoclonal gammopathies who had undergone uniform testing to identify primary cytogenetic abnormalities. DNA from bone marrow samples was genotyped on the Precision Medicine Research Array and biogeographical ancestry was quantitatively assessed using the Geographic Population Structure Origins tool. The probability of having one of three specific subtypes, namely t(11;14), t(14;16), or t(14;20) was significantly higher in the 120 individuals with highest African ancestry (≥80%) compared with the 235 individuals with lowest African ancestry (<0.1%) (51% vs. 33%, respectively, p value = 0.008). Using quantitatively measured African ancestry, we demonstrate a major proportion of the racial disparity in MM is driven by disparity in the occurrence of the t(11;14), t(14;16), and t(14;20) types of MM

Severity of Depression, Anxious Distress and the Risk of Cardiovascular Disease in a Swedish Population-Based Cohort.

Background: Depression is known to be associated with cardiovascular diseases (CVD). This population-based cohort study aimed to determine the association between depression of varying severity and risk for CVD and to study the effect of concomitant anxious distress on this association. Methods: We utilized data from a longitudinal cohort study of mental health, work and relations among adults (20–64 years), with a total of 10,443 individuals. Depression and anxious distress were assessed using psychiatric rating scales and defined according to DSM-5. Outcomes were register-based and self-reported cardiovascular diseases. Findings: Overall increased odds ratios of 1.5 to 2.6 were seen for the different severity levels of depression, with the highest adjusted OR for moderate depression (OR 2.1 (95% CI 1.3, 3.5). Similar odds ratios were seen for sub-groups of CVD: ischemic/hypertensive heart disease and stroke, 2.4 (95% CI 1.4, 3.9) and OR 2.1 (95%CI 1.2, 3.8) respectively. Depression with anxious distress as a specifier of severity showed OR of 2.1 (95% CI 1.5, 2.9) for CVD. Conclusion: This study found that severity level of depression seems to be of significance for increased risk of CVD among depressed persons, although not in a dose-response manner which might be obscured due to treatment of depression. Further, we found a higher risk of CVD among depressed individuals with symptoms of anxious distress