Progression of conventional cardiovascular risk factors and vascular disease risk in individuals: insights from the PROG-IMT consortium

Aims: Averaged measurements, but not the progression based on multiple assessments of carotid intima-media thickness, (cIMT) are predictive of cardiovascular disease (CVD) events in individuals. Whether this is true for conventional risk factors is unclear. Methods and results: An individual participant meta-analysis was used to associate the annualised progression of systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol with future cardiovascular disease risk in 13 prospective cohort studies of the PROG-IMT collaboration (n = 34,072). Follow-up data included information on a combined cardiovascular disease endpoint of myocardial infarction, stroke, or vascular death. In secondary analyses, annualised progression was replaced with average. Log hazard ratios per standard deviation difference were pooled across studies by a random effects meta-analysis. In primary analysis, the annualised progression of total cholesterol was marginally related to a higher cardiovascular disease risk (hazard ratio (HR) 1.04, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.00 to 1.07). The annualised progression of systolic blood pressure, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol was not associated with future cardiovascular disease risk. In secondary analysis, average systolic blood pressure (HR 1.20 95% CI 1.11 to 1.29) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HR 1.09, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.16) were related to a greater, while high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HR 0.92, 95% CI 0.88 to 0.97) was related to a lower risk of future cardiovascular disease events. Conclusion: Averaged measurements of systolic blood pressure, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol displayed significant linear relationships with the risk of future cardiovascular disease events. However, there was no clear association between the annualised progression of these conventional risk factors in individuals with the risk of future clinical endpoints

Effect of detonator position on rock fragmentation:full-scale field tests at Kevitsa open pit mine

Abstract The effect of detonator position on rock fragmentation was studied at the Kevitsa open pit mine. Five full-scale field tests were conducted where the blasts were divided into test and reference areas, and compared with each other. In the test areas, the detonators were placed at or near the middle point of the explosive column, and in the reference areas, corresponding to the conventional blasts used in the Kevitsa mine, the detonators were placed about 1–2 m above the bottom of the blast holes. The rock fragment sizes from both test and reference areas were measured and studied using shovel-mounted machine vision cameras and image analysis. Both theoretical and field studies indicated that the detonator position plays an important role in rock fragmentation, and that the detonator position in the middle of the explosive column yielded significant improvement in rock fragmentation. For example, percentages of fragment sizes x20, x50, and x80 are reduced by 10–27%, 11–30%, and 8–31%, respectively; percentage of large size fragments (>1.0 m) is reduced by 29–99%; percentage of small size fragments (<2.5 cm) is increased by 6–49%

Progression of conventional cardiovascular risk factors and vascular disease risk in individuals: insights from the PROG-IMT consortium

Aims - Averaged measurements, but not the progression based on multiple assessments of carotid intima-media thickness, (cIMT) are predictive of cardiovascular disease (CVD) events in individuals. Whether this is true for conventional risk factors is unclear. Methods and results - An individual participant meta-analysis was used to associate the annualised progression of systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol with future cardiovascular disease risk in 13 prospective cohort studies of the PROG-IMT collaboration (n = 34,072). Follow-up data included information on a combined cardiovascular disease endpoint of myocardial infarction, stroke, or vascular death. In secondary analyses, annualised progression was replaced with average. Log hazard ratios per standard deviation difference were pooled across studies by a random effects meta-analysis. In primary analysis, the annualised progression of total cholesterol was marginally related to a higher cardiovascular disease risk (hazard ratio (HR) 1.04, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.00 to 1.07). The annualised progression of systolic blood pressure, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol was not associated with future cardiovascular disease risk. In secondary analysis, average systolic blood pressure (HR 1.20 95% CI 1.11 to 1.29) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HR 1.09, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.16) were related to a greater, while high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HR 0.92, 95% CI 0.88 to 0.97) was related to a lower risk of future cardiovascular disease events. Conclusion - Averaged measurements of systolic blood pressure, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol displayed significant linear relationships with the risk of future cardiovascular disease events. However, there was no clear association between the annualised progression of these conventional risk factors in individuals with the risk of future clinical endpoints

Association results of forearm BMD meta-analysis and fracture for selected SNPs.

<p>EA: effect allele; NEA: non-effect allele; EAF: effect allele frequency; RA: risk allele.</p><p>See <a href="http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1002745#pgen.1002745.s014" target="_blank">Table S4</a> for a list of all genome-wide significant SNPs.</p

SNP rs2707466 regional association plot of the discovery genome-wide meta-analysis of cortical thickness.

<p>Circles show GWA meta-analysis p-values, with different colors indicating varying linkage disequilibrium with rs2707466 (diamond).</p