A pooled-analysis of age and sex based coronary artery calcium scores percentiles

Funding The authors of this publication did not receive any grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sector to support this research effort. Dr. Paolo Raggi was supported by a grant (RES0016825) from the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada. Dr. Matthew J. Budoff has Grant support from general electric and NIH. None of the other authors declares a conflict of interest. Publisher Copyright: © 2020 [The Author/The Authors]Background: Age and sex based coronary artery calcium score (CAC) percentiles have been used to improve coronary artery disease (CAD) risk prediction. However, the main limitation of the CACs percentiles currently in use is that they are often based on single studies. We performed a pooled analysis of all available studies that reported on CAC percentiles, in order to develop more generalizable age and sex nomograms. Methods: PubMed/Medline and Embase were searched for studies that reported nomograms of age and sex-based CACs percentiles. Studies were included if they reported data collected among asymptomatic individuals without a history of cardiovascular disease. Absolute CACs for each specific percentile stratum were pooled and new percentiles were generated taking into account the sample size of the study. Results: We found 831 studies, of which 12 met the inclusion criteria. Data on CACs percentiles of 134,336 Western and 33,488 Asians were pooled separately, rendering a weighted CACs percentile nomogram available at https://www.calciumscorecalculator.com. Our weighted percentiles differed by up to 24% from the nomograms in use today. Conclusions: Our pooled age and sex based CACs percentiles based on over 155,000 individuals should provide a measure of risk that is more applicable to a wider population than the ones currently in use and hopefully will lead to better risk assessment and treatment decisions.Peer reviewe

Comparison of axial and coronal acquisitions by non-contrast-enhanced renal 3D MR angiography using flow-in time-spatial labeling inversion pulse

ObjectiveWe evaluated image quality differences between axial and coronal non-contrast-enhanced renal three-dimensional (3D) magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) acquisitions, using time-spatial labeling inversion pulse (Time-SLIP) with flow-in balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP).Materials and methodsAxial and coronal images were acquired in 128 subjects using non-contrast-enhanced 3D-MRA with Time-SLIP flow-in bSSFP on a clinical 1.5-T MRI system. Visualization of source and maximum intensity projection (MIP) images of renal arteries were compared between the axial and coronal acquisitions using a four-point scale. For quantitative analysis, vessel-to-background contrast ratios of aorta and renal arteries were calculated.ResultsBoth acquisitions yielded similarly excellent quality. In source image evaluation, coronal acquisitions showed significantly more motion degradation (p < 0.01) than did axial acquisitions. In MIP image evaluation, coronal acquisitions yielded superior image quality, less motion degradation, and better visualization of the number of renal branches than did axial acquisition. The renal artery to background signal contrast was greater in coronal than in axial acquisitions (p < 0.01).ConclusionCoronal acquisition provides superior contrast between the renal arteries and background and allows more persistent visualization than axial acquisitions in non-contrast-enhanced MRA using flow-in bSSFP with Time-SLIP. First-line screening of renal non-contrast-enhanced MRA should involve coronal acquisition

家庭科食領域における消費者市民育成に関する一考察: 大学生への意識調査と教科書分析より

金沢大学人間社会研究域学校教育系本稿は,大学生の食行動に関する質問紙調査と高等学校の家庭科教科書の分析により,消費者市民育成のあり方を探ったものである。質問紙調査では,大学生は食を選ぶ際に,安くて量のあるものを重視し,産地や添加物などの安全面はあまり気にしていないことが明らかになった。そして教科書分析によれば,食領域では「自分のための食」「地球のための食」についての記載は多いものの,「地域の食」についての内容が稀薄であった。今後家庭科で消費者市民意識を育むためには,「自分・家族・地域・国・地球」という幅広い視点から,生活行為の選択ができるような教科書の充実が望まれることを考察した。This paper aims to clarify how to encourage consumer citizenship of dietary field in home economics education by means of by two surveys. The first survey is a questionnaire about university students\u27 dietary behavior. It was carried out in a teacher\u27s college. It became clear that university students focus on cheapness and quantity of food. On the other hand they do not pay much attention to security aspects such as the food additives and production source when they select their meal. The second survey analyzes home economics textbooks of home economics in high school. The analysis demonstrates that there are more articles about `food for themselves\u27 and `food for earth\u27 rather than `food for region\u27 in the text books on the dietary field. Therefore it seems necessary to change contents of the text books from a wider perspective view such as `food for themselves, family, region, Japan and earth\u27 in order to foster consumer citizenship in home economics.出版者の許可を得て登録_2021072

Role of sarcolemmal K(ATP) channels in cardioprotection against ischemia/reperfusion injury in mice

Recently it has been postulated that mitochondrial ATP-sensitive K(+) (mitoK(ATP)) channels rather than sarcolemmal K(ATP) (sarcK(ATP)) channels are important as end effectors and/or triggers of ischemic preconditioning (IPC). To define the pathophysiological significance of sarcK(ATP) channels, we conducted functional experiments using Kir6.2-deficient (KO) mice. Metabolic inhibition with glucose-free, dinitrophenol-containing solution activated sarcK(ATP) current and shortened the action potential duration in ventricular cells isolated from wild-type (WT) but not KO mice. MitoK(ATP) channel function was preserved in KO ventricular cells. In anesthetized mice, IPC reduced the infarct size in WT but not KO mice. Following global ischemia/reperfusion, the increase of left ventricular end-diastolic pressure during ischemia was more marked, and the recovery of contractile function was worse, in KO hearts than in WT hearts. Treatment with HMR1098, a sarcK(ATP) channel blocker, but not 5-hydroxydecanoate, a mitoK(ATP) channel blocker, produced a deterioration of contractile function in WT hearts comparable to that of KO hearts. These findings suggest that sarcKATP channels figures prominently in modulating ischemia/reperfusion injury in the mouse. The rapid heart rate of the mouse (>600 beats per minute) may magnify the relative importance of sarcK(ATP) channels during ischemia, prompting caution in the extrapolation of the conclusions to larger mammals