Tv viewing and incident venous thromboembolism: The atherosclerotic risk in communities study

TV viewing is associated with risk of arterial vascular diseases, but has not been evaluated in relation to venous throm-boembolism (VTE) risk in Western populations. In 1987–1989, the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study obtained information on the frequency of TV viewing in participants aged 45–64 and followed them prospectively. In individuals free of prebaseline VTE (n=15, 158), we used a Cox proportional hazards models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of incident VTE according to frequency of TV viewing (“Never or seldom”, “Sometimes”, “Often” or “Very often”). During the 299,767 person-years of follow-up, we identified 691 VTE events. In a multivariable-adjusted model, the frequency of TV viewing showed a positive dose–response relation with VTE incidence (P for trend=0.036), in which “very often” viewing TV carried 1.71 (95% CI 1.26–2.32) times the risk of VTE compared with “never or seldom” viewing TV. This association to some degree was mediated by obesity (25% mediation, 95% CI 10.7–27.5). Even among individuals who met a recommended level of physical activity, viewing TV “very often” carried 1.80 (1.04–3.09) times the risk of VTE, compared to viewing TV “never or seldom”. Greater frequency of TV viewing was independently associated with increased risk of VTE, partially mediated by obesity. Achieving a recommended physical activity level did not eliminate the increased VTE risk associated with frequent TV viewing. Avoiding frequent TV viewing as well as increasing physical activity and controlling body weight might be beneficial for VTE prevention

Isolated HbA1c identifies a different subgroup of individuals with type 2 diabetes compared to fasting or post-challenge glucose in Asian Indians: The CARRS and MASALA studies.

AIMS: Guidelines recommend hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) as a diagnostic test for type 2 diabetes, but its accuracy may differ in certain ethnic groups. METHODS: The prevalence of type 2 diabetes by HbA1c, fasting glucose, and 2 h glucose was compared in 3016 participants from Chennai and Delhi, India from the CARRS-2 Study to 757 Indians in the U.S. from the MASALA Study. Type 2 diabetes was defined as fasting glucose ≥ 7.0 mmol/L, 2-h glucose ≥ 11.1 mmol/L, or HbA1c ≥ 6.5%. Isolated HbA1c diabetes was defined as HbA1c ≥ 6.5% with fasting glucose < 7.0 mmol/L and 2 h glucose < 11.1 mmol/L. RESULTS: The age, sex, and BMI adjusted prevalence of diabetes by isolated HbA1c was 2.9% (95% CI: 2.2-4.0), 3.1% (95% CI: 2.3-4.1), and 0.8% (95% CI: 0.4-1.8) in CARRS-Chennai, CARRS-Delhi, and MASALA, respectively. The proportion of diabetes diagnosed by isolated HbA1c was 19.4%, 26.8%, and 10.8% in CARRS-Chennai, CARRS-Delhi, and MASALA respectively. In CARRS-2, individuals with type 2 diabetes by isolated HbA1c milder cardio-metabolic risk than those diagnosed by fasting or 2-h measures. CONCLUSIONS: In Asian Indians, the use of HbA1c for type 2 diabetes diagnosis could result in a higher prevalence. HbA1c may identify a subset of individuals with milder glucose intolerance

Common hemostasis and inflammation gene variants and venous thrombosis in older adults from the Cardiovascular Health Study

Age-related changes in blood coagulation and fibrinolysis are associated with increased risk of thrombotic events. Inherited deficiencies of coagulation proteins, such as factor V Leiden and prothrombin G20210A, explain a small fraction of venous thromboembolic disease (VTE). Additional genetic factors likely underlie the etiology of VTE, some of which may become manifest at older ages

Robustness and Generalization

We derive generalization bounds for learning algorithms based on their robustness: the property that if a testing sample is "similar" to a training sample, then the testing error is close to the training error. This provides a novel approach, different from the complexity or stability arguments, to study generalization of learning algorithms. We further show that a weak notion of robustness is both sufficient and necessary for generalizability, which implies that robustness is a fundamental property for learning algorithms to work

Association of coagulation-related and inflammation-related genes and factor VIIc levels with stroke: the Cardiovascular Health Study: Coagulation and inflammation genes and stroke

Thrombosis and inflammation are critical in stroke etiology, but associations of coagulation and inflammation gene variants with stroke, and particularly factor VII levels are inconclusive

Effect of sickle cell trait and apol1 genotype on the association of soluble upar with kidney function measures in black americans

Soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) is the circulating form of urokinase plasminogen activator receptor, a glycosyl-phosphatidylinositol–anchored membrane protein expressed in various cell types including kidney podocytes and endothelial cells. suPAR has been associated with a decline in eGFR and the risk of incident CKD or proteinuria in a variety of clinical settings. In the United States, the higher risk of CKD in Black people compared with White people may be at least partially attributable to two genetic susceptibility factors, APOL1 and sickle cell trait, which occur respectively in approximately 13% and 8% of Black people. Hayeketal recently showed that suPAR levels modify the association between APOL1 genotype and eGFR decline in the African American Study of Kidney Disease and Hypertension and a cohort registry of Black people who underwent cardiac catherization

Qualitative Robustness of Bootstrap Approximations for Kernel Based Methods

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Soluble Urokinase Plasminogen Activator Receptor: Genetic Variation and Cardiovascular Disease Risk in Black Adults

BACKGROUND: suPAR (Soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor) has emerged as an important biomarker of coagulation, inflammation, and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. The contribution of suPAR to CVD risk and its genetic influence in Black populations have not been evaluated. METHODS: We measured suPAR in 3492 Black adults from the prospective, community-based JHS (Jackson Heart Study). Cross-sectional associations of suPAR with lifestyle and CVD risk factors were assessed, whole-genome sequence data were used to evaluate genetic associations of suPAR, and relationships of suPAR with incident CVD outcomes and overall mortality were estimated over follow-up. RESULTS: In Cox models adjusted for traditional CVD risk factors, estimated glomerular filtration rate, and CRP (C-reactive protein), each 1-SD higher suPAR was associated with a 21% to 31% increased risk of incident coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke, and mortality. In the genome-wide association study, 2 missense (rs399145 encoding p.Thr86Ala, rs4760 encoding p.Phe272Leu) and 2 noncoding regulatory variants (rs73935023 within an enhancer element and rs4251805 within the promoter) of PLAUR on chromosome 19 were each independently associated with suPAR and together explained 14% of suPAR phenotypic variation. The allele frequencies of each of the four suPAR-associated genetic variants differ considerably across African and European populations. We further show that PLAUR rs73935023 can alter transcriptional activity in vitro. We did not find any association between genetically determined suPAR and CVD in JHS or a larger electronic medical record-based analyses of Blacks or Whites. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate the importance of ancestry-differentiated genetic variation on suPAR levels and indicate suPAR is a CVD biomarker in Black adults