27 research outputs found
Financing essential HIV services: a new economic agenda.
Anna Vassall and colleagues discuss the need for, and challenges facing, innovative and sustainable financing of the HIV response. Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary
Global change effects on plant communities are magnified by time and the number of global change factors imposed
Global change drivers (GCDs) are expected to alter community structure and consequently, the services that ecosystems provide. Yet, few experimental investigations have examined effects of GCDs on plant community structure across multiple ecosystem types, and those that do exist present conflicting patterns. In an unprecedented global synthesis of over 100 experiments that manipulated factors linked to GCDs, we show that herbaceous plant community responses depend on experimental manipulation length and number of factors manipulated. We found that plant communities are fairly resistant to experimentally manipulated GCDs in the short term (<10 y). In contrast, long-term (â„10 y) experiments show increasing community divergence of treatments from control conditions. Surprisingly, these community responses occurred with similar frequency across the GCD types manipulated in our database. However, community responses were more common when 3 or more GCDs were simultaneously manipulated, suggesting the emergence of additive or synergistic effects of multiple drivers, particularly over long time periods. In half of the cases, GCD manipulations caused a difference in community composition without a corresponding species richness difference, indicating that species reordering or replacement is an important mechanism of community responses to GCDs and should be given greater consideration when examining consequences of GCDs for the biodiversityâecosystem function relationship. Human activities are currently driving unparalleled global changes worldwide. Our analyses provide the most comprehensive evidence to date that these human activities may have widespread impacts on plant community composition globally, which will increase in frequency over time and be greater in areas where communities face multiple GCDs simultaneously
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Statin Effects to Reduce Hepatosteatosis as Measured by Computed Tomography in Patients With Human Immunodeficiency Virus
Hepatosteatosis is highly prevalent among patients living with human immunodeficiency virus. In a 1-year, randomized, double-blind trial of atorvastatin or placebo, atorvastatin increased liver/spleen ratio among patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, indicating a reduction in hepatosteatosis. This reduction in hepatosteatosis is associated with reduction in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol with statin therapy
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Differential relationships of hepatic and epicardial fat to body composition in HIV
Abstract HIVâinfected patients commonly experience changes in central and peripheral fat content as well as ectopic fat accumulation. However, whether hepatic and epicardial fat stores relate differentially to body composition or how these associations are modified by HIV status has not been well explored. A previously recruited sample of 124 HIVâinfected patients and 58 healthy controls had undergone dual energy Xâray absorptiometry (DEXA) and computed tomography (CT) from which body composition measures, liverâspleen ratio, and epicardial fat volume were obtained. Unique to the HIVâinfected group, there was a parabolic association between abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) area and liverâspleen ratio (P = 0.03, inflection point 324 cm2) such that hepatic fat content was greatest at the extremes of low and high SAT. A quadratic model also closely described the relationship between mean leg fat and liverâspleen ratio among patients with HIV (P = 0.02, inflection point 4.7 kg), again suggesting greater liver fat content with both low and high leg fat. Notably, an analogous relationship of epicardial fat with SAT was not evident among HIVâinfected individuals or healthy controls. In contrast, visceral adipose tissue (VAT) linearly related to both liverâspleen ratio in HIV and epicardial fat volume irrespective of HIV status in multivariable models. In conclusion, our analyses implicate both low and high SAT as risk factors for hepatic fat accumulation in HIV. These findings add to growing evidence of SAT dysfunction in the setting of HIV infection, and highlight key physiologic differences between hepatic and epicardial fat depots
Legislative Documents
Also, variously referred to as: House bills; House documents; House legislative documents; legislative documents; General Court documents
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Human Papillomavirus Status and the Risk of Cerebrovascular Events Following Radiation Therapy for Head and Neck Cancer
Background: Radiation therapy (RT) is a standard treatment for head and neck cancer; however, it is associated with inflammation, accelerated atherosclerosis, and cerebrovascular events (CVEs; stroke or transient ischemic attack). Human papillomavirus (HPV) is found in nearly half of head and neck cancers and is associated with inflammation and atherosclerosis. Whether HPV confers an increased risk of CVEs after RT is unknown. Methods and Results: Using an institutional database, we identified all consecutive patients treated with RT from 2002 to 2012 for head and neck cancer who were tested for HPV. The outcome of interest was the composite of ischemic stroke and transient ischemic attack, and the association between HPV and CVEs was assessed using Cox proportional hazard models, competing risk analysis, and inverse probability weighting. Overall, 326 participants who underwent RT for head and neck cancer were tested for HPV (age 59±12 years, 75% were male, 9% had diabetes mellitus, 45% had hypertension, and 61% were smokers), of which 191 (59%) were tumor HPV positive. Traditional risk factors for CVEs were similar between HPVâpositive and ânegative patients. Over a median followâup of 3.4 years, there were 18 ischemic strokes and 5 transient ischemic attacks (event rate of 1.8% per year). The annual event rate was higher in the HPVâpositive patients compared with the HPVânegative patients (2.6% versus 0.9%, P=0.002). In a multivariable model, HPVâpositive status was associated with a >4 times increased risk of CVEs (hazard ratio: 4.4; 95% confidence interval, 1.5â13.2; P=0.008). Conclusions: In this study, HPVâpositive status is associated with an increased risk of stroke or transient ischemic attack following RT for head and neck cancer
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Prognostic Value of Coronary CTA in Stable Chest Pain CAD-RADS, CAC, and Cardiovascular Events in PROMISE
ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to compare Coronary Artery Disease Reporting and Data System (CAD-RADS) to traditional stenosis categories and the coronary artery calcium score (CACS) for predicting cardiovascular events in patients with stable chest pain and suspected coronary artery disease (CAD).BackgroundThe 2016 CAD-RADS has been established to standardize the reporting of CAD on coronary CT angiography (CTA).MethodsPROMISE (Prospective Multicenter Imaging Study for Evaluation of Chest Pain) trial participants' CTAs were assessed by a central CT core laboratory for CACS, traditional stenosis-based categories, and modified CAD-RADS grade including high-risk coronary plaque (HRP) features. Traditional stenosis categories and CAD-RADS grade were compared for the prediction of the composite endpoint of death, myocardial infarction, or hospitalization for unstable angina over a median follow-up of 25 months. Incremental prognostic value over traditional risk factors and CACS was assessed.ResultsIn 3,840 eligible patients (mean age: 60.4 ± 8.2 years; 49% men), 3.0% (115) experienced events. CAD-RADS (concordance statistic [C-statistic] 0.747) had significantly higher discriminatory value than traditional stenosis-based assessments (C-statistic 0.698 to 0.717; all p for comparison â€0.001). With no plaque (CAD-RADS 0) as the baseline, the hazard ratio (HR) for an event increased from 2.43 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.16 to 5.08) for CAD-RADS 1 to 21.84 (95% CI: 8.63 to 55.26) for CAD-RADS 4b and 5. In stepwise nested models, CAD-RADS added incremental prognostic value beyond ASCVD risk score and CACS (C-statistic 0.776 vs. 0.682; p < 0.001), and added incremental value persisted in all CACS strata.ConclusionsThese data from a large representative contemporary cohort of patients undergoing coronary CTA for stable chest pain support the prognostic value of CAD-RADS as a standard reporting system for coronary CTA
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Incidental Statin Use and the Risk of Stroke or Transient Ischemic Attack after Radiotherapy for Head and Neck Cancer
Background and Purpose Interventions to reduce the risk for cerebrovascular events (CVE; stroke and transient ischemic attack [TIA]) after radiotherapy (RT) for head and neck cancer (HNCA) are needed. Among broad populations, statins reduce CVEs; however, whether statins reduce CVEs after RT for HNCA is unclear. Therefore, we aimed to test whether incidental statin use at the time of RT is associated with a lower rate of CVEs after RT for HNCA. Methods: From an institutional database we identified all consecutive subjects treated with neck RT from 2002 to 2012 for HNCA. Data collection and event adjudication was performed by blinded teams. The primary outcome was a composite of ischemic stroke and TIA. The secondary outcome was ischemic stroke. The association between statin use and events was determined using Cox proportional hazard models after adjustment for traditional and RT-specific risk factors. Results: The final cohort consisted of 1,011 patients (59±13 years, 30% female, 44% hypertension) with 288 (28%) on statins. Over a median follow-up of 3.4 years (interquartile range, 0.1 to 14) there were 102 CVEs (89 ischemic strokes and 13 TIAs) with 17 in statin users versus 85 in nonstatins users. In a multivariable model containing known predictors of CVE, statins were associated with a reduction in the combination of stroke and TIA (hazard ratio [HR], 0.4; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.2 to 0.8; P=0.01) and ischemic stroke alone (HR, 0.4; 95% CI, 0.2 to 0.8; P=0.01). Conclusions: Incidental statin use at the time of RT for HNCA is associated with a lower risk of stroke or TIA
The effect of emphysema on readmission and survival among smokers with heart failure - Fig 2
<p><b>Emphysema on CT is associated with increased mortality (a) and readmissions (b)</b>. Kaplan-Meier survival curves for mortality (a) and readmission free survival (b) showing that patients with emphysema on CT have decreased event free survival and decreased readmission free survival as compared to patients without emphysema on CT.</p