The -1C to T polymorphism in the annexin A5 gene is not associated with the risk of acute myocardial infarction or sudden cardiac death in middle-aged Finnish males.
OBJECTIVE: A common polymorphism (-1C to T) in the translation initiation sequence of annexin A5 (ANV) gene has recently been associated with a decreased risk of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). The aim of the present study was to analyze the association between the ANV genepolymorphism and the risk of AMI and ischemic sudden cardiac death (SCD) in middle-aged Finnish males. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A case-control study involving three distinct groups of subjects was carried out: (1) victims of SCD (n=98), (2) survivors of AMI (n=212), and (3) randomly selected control subjects without any history of coronary heart disease (n=243). The ANV polymorphism was genotyped in each study group. RESULTS: Among the control group of healthy Finnish males the prevalence rates of the CC, CT, and TT genotypes were 83.1%, 15.2%, and 1.6%, respectively. Among the survivors of AMI, the prevalence rates of CC, CT, and TT were 79.7%, 20.3%, and 0%, respectively, and among the victims of SCD 83.7%, 16.3%, and 0%, respectively. No significant differences in the genotype or allele distributions were observed between the study groups. CONCLUSION: The -1C to T polymorphism in the ANV gene is not associated with the risk of AMI or SCD in middle-aged Finnish males.
2-year patient-related versus stent-related outcomes: the SORT OUT IV (Scandinavian Organization for Randomized Trials With Clinical Outcome IV) Trial.
There are limited head-to-head randomized data on patient-related versus stent-related outcomes for everolimus-eluting stents (EES) and sirolimus-eluting stents (SES).
In the SORT OUT IV (Scandinavian Organization for Randomized Trials With Clinical Outcome IV) trial, comparing the EES with the SES in patients with coronary artery disease, the EES was noninferior to the SES at 9 months.
The primary endpoint was a composite: cardiac death, myocardial infarction (MI), definite stent thrombosis, or target vessel revascularization. Safety and efficacy outcomes at 2 years were further assessed with specific focus on patient-related composite (all death, all MI, or any revascularization) and stent-related composite outcomes (cardiac death, target vessel MI, or symptom-driven target lesion revascularization). A total of 1,390 patients were assigned to receive the EES, and 1,384 patients were assigned to receive the SES.
At 2 years, the composite primary endpoint occurred in 8.3% in the EES group and in 8.7% in the SES group (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.94, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.73 to 1.22). The patient-related outcome: 15.0% in the EES group versus 15.6% in the SES group, (HR: 0.95, 95% CI: 0.78 to 1.15), and the stent-related outcome: 5.2% in the EES group versus 5.3% in the SES group (HR: 0.97, 95% CI: 0.70 to 1.35) did not differ between groups. Rate of definite stent thrombosis was lower in the EES group (0.2% vs. 0.9%, (HR: 0.23, 95% CI: 0.07 to 0.80).
At 2-year follow-up, the EES was found to be noninferior to the SES with regard to both patient-related and stent-related clinical outcomes.
Seventy-five patients were admitted to the ward of the Lund Suicide Research Center following a suicide attempt. After 5 years, the patients were followed up by a personal semistructured interview covering sociodemographic, psychosocial and psychiatric areas. Ten patients (13%) had committed suicide during the follow-up period, the majority within 2 years. They tended to be older at the index attempt admission, and most of them had a mood disorder in comparison with the others. Two patients had died from somatic diseases. Forty-two patients were interviewed, of whom 17 (40%) had reattempted during the follow-up period, most of them within 3 years. Predictors for reattempt were young age, personality disorder, parents having received treatment for psychiatric disorder, and a poor social network. At the index attempt, none of the reattempters had diagnoses of adjustment disorders or anxiety disorders. At follow-up, reattempters had more psychiatric symptoms (SCL-90), and their overall functioning (GAF) was poor compared to those who did not reattempt. All of the reattempters had long-lasting treatment ( > 3 years) as compared to 56% of the others. It is of great clinical importance to focus on treatment strategies for the vulnerable subgroup of self-destructive reattempters.
6-Hydroxycleroda-3,13-dien-15,16-olide protects neuronal cells from lipopolysaccharide-induced neurotoxicity through the inhibition of microglia-mediated inflammation.
Polyalthia longifolia var. pendula is used as an antipyretic agent in indigenous systems of medicine. Microglia-mediated inflammation plays an important role in the pathway leading to neuronal cell death in a number of neurodegenerative diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of 6-hydroxycleroda-3,13-dien-15,16-olide (PL3) extracted from Polyalthia longifolia var. pendula on lipopolysaccharide(LPS)-induced inflammation in microglia-like HAPI cells and primary microglia cultures. In microglia-neuron co-cultures, LPS decreased the cell viability of neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells. LPS-induced cell death was attenuated by the NOS inhibitor, L-NAME, the COX-2 inhibitor, NS-398 or the NADPH oxidase inhibitor, DPI, respectively. In LPS-treated microglia cells, PL3 decreased the expression of iNOS, COX-2, gp91 (phox), and NF- kappaBp65, the degradation of I kappaB alpha, and the production of NO, PGE (2), iROS, and TNF- alpha. PL3 also enhanced the expression of HO-1, a cytoprotective and anti-inflammatory enzyme. Moreover, PL3 reduced LPS-activated microglia-induced cell death. The present results suggest that PL3 inhibits microglia-mediated inflammation and inflammation-related neuronal cell death. Therefore, PL3 has potential use for the treatment of inflammation-related neurodegenerative diseases.
Division of Surgery, Department for Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institutet at Karolinska University Hospital, K53, Huddinge, 141 86 Stockholm, Sweden. johannes.blom@ki.se
Source
Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2008 May;17(5):1163-8
BACKGROUND: Self-selection may compromise cost-effectiveness of screening programs. We hypothesized that nonparticipants have generally higher morbidity and mortality than participants. METHODS: A Swedish population-based random sample of 1,986 subjects ages 59 to 61 years was invited to sigmoidoscopy screening and followed up for 9 years by means of multiple record linkages to health and population registers. Gender-adjusted cancer incidence rate ratio (IRR) and overall and disease group-specific and mortality rate ratio (MRR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were estimated for nonparticipants relative to participants. Cancer and mortality rates were also estimated relative to the age-matched, gender-matched, and calendar period-matched Swedish population using standardized incidence ratios and standardized mortality ratios. RESULTS: Thirty-nine percent participated. The incidence of colorectal cancer (IRR, 2.2; 95% CI, 0.8-5.9), other gastrointestinal cancer (IRR, 2.7; 95% CI, 0.6-12.8), lung cancer (IRR, 2.2; 95% CI, 0.8-5.9), and smoking-related cancer overall (IRR, 1.4; 95% CI, 0.7-2.5) tended to be increased among nonparticipants relative to participants. Standardized incidence ratios for most of the studied cancers tended to be >1.0 among nonparticipants and
OBJECTIVES: To investigate mortality among users of hostels for homeless people in Copenhagen, and to identify predictors of death such as conditions during upbringing, mental illness, and misuse of alcohol and drugs. DESIGN: Register based follow up study. SETTING: Two hostels for homeless people in Copenhagen, Denmark PARTICIPANTS: 579 people who stayed in one hostel in Copenhagen in 1991, and a representative sample of 185 people who stayed in the original hostel and one other in Copenhagen. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Cause specific mortality. RESULTS: The age and sex standardised mortality ratio for both sexes was 3.8 (95% confidence interval 3.5 to 4.1); 2.8 (2.6 to 3.1) for men and 5.6 (4.3 to 6.9) for women. The age and sex standardised mortality ratio for suicide for both sexes was 6.0 (3.9 to 8.1), for death from natural causes 2.6 (2.3 to 2.9), for unintentional injuries 14.6 (11.4 to 17.8), and for unknown cause of death 62.9 (52.7 to 73.2). Mortality was comparatively higher in the younger age groups. It was also significantly higher among homeless people who had stayed in a hostel more than once and stayed fewer than 11 days, compared with the rest of the study group. Risk factors for early death were premature death of the father and misuse of alcohol and sedatives. CONCLUSION: Homeless people staying in hostels, particularly young women, are more likely to die early than the general population. Other predictors of early death include adverse experiences in childhood, such as death of the father, and misuse of alcohol and sedatives.
Department of Forensic Psychiatry, University of Kuopio and Niuvanniemi Hospital, Department of Clinical Physiology, Kuopio University Hospital, Kuopio, Finland. jari.tiihonen@niuva.fi
The introduction of second-generation antipsychotic drugs during the 1990s is widely believed to have adversely affected mortality of patients with schizophrenia. Our aim was to establish the long-term contribution of antipsychotic drugs to mortality in such patients.
Nationwide registers in Finland were used to compare the cause-specific mortality in 66 881 patients versus the total population (5.2 million) between 1996, and 2006, and to link these data with the use of antipsychotic drugs. We measured the all-cause mortality of patients with schizophrenia in outpatient care during current and cumulative exposure to any antipsychotic drug versus no use of these drugs, and exposure to the six most frequently used antipsychotic drugs compared with perphenazine use.
Although the proportional use of second-generation antipsychotic drugs rose from 13% to 64% during follow-up, the gap in life expectancy between patients with schizophrenia and the general population did not widen between 1996 (25 years), and 2006 (22.5 years). Compared with current use of perphenazine, the highest risk for overall mortality was recorded for quetiapine (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 1.41, 95% CI 1.09-1.82), and the lowest risk for clozapine (0.74, 0.60-0.91; p=0.0045 for the difference between clozapine vs perphenazine, and p
Notes
Comment In: Lancet. 2009 Nov 7;374(9701):1591; author reply 1592-319897117
Comment In: Lancet. 2009 Nov 7;374(9701):1591; author reply 1592-319897118
Comment In: Lancet. 2009 Aug 22;374(9690):590-219595448
Comment In: Lancet. 2009 Nov 7;374(9701):1592; author reply 1592-319897121
Comment In: Lancet. 2009 Nov 7;374(9701):1592; author reply 1592-319897120
Associations between the sense of humor and survival in relation to specific diseases has so far never been studied.
We conducted a 15-year follow-up study of 53,556 participants in the population-based Nord-Trøndelag Health Study, Norway. Cognitive, social, and affective components of the sense of humor were obtained, and associations with all-cause mortality, mortality due to cardiovascular diseases (CVD), infections, cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases were estimated by hazard ratios (HRs).
After multivariate adjustments, high scores on the cognitive component of the sense of humor were significantly associated with lower all-cause mortality in women (HR = 0.52, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.33-0.81), but not in men (HR = 0.88, 95% CI = 0.59-1.32). Mortality due to CVD was significantly lower in women with high scores on the cognitive component (HR = 0.27, 95% CI = 0.15-0.47), and so was mortality due to infections both in men (HR = 0.26, 95% CI = 0.09-0.74) and women (HR = 0.17, 95% CI = 0.04-0.76). The social and affective components of the sense of humor were not associated with mortality. In the total population, the positive association between the cognitive component of sense of humor and survival was present until the age of 85 years.
The cognitive component of the sense of humor is positively associated with survival from mortality related to CVD and infections in women and with infection-related mortality in men. The findings indicate that sense of humor is a health-protecting cognitive coping resource.
