Cardiovascular System Commons^™

Stimulating The Facial Nerve To Treat Ischemic Stroke: A Systematic Review, Turner S. Baker, Justin Robeny, Danna Cruz, Alexis Bruhat, Alfred-Marc Iloreta, Anthony Costa, Thomas James Oxley

Publications and Research

Acute ischemic stroke (AIS) is a common devastating disease that has increased yearly in absolute number of cases since 1990. While mechanical thrombectomy and tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) have proven to be effective treatments, their window-of-efficacy time is very short, leaving many patients with no viable treatment option. Over recent years there has been a growing interest in stimulating the facial nerves or ganglions to treat AIS. Pre-clinical studies have consistently demonstrated an increase in collateral blood flow (CBF) following ganglion stimulation, with positive indications in infarct size and neurological scores. Extensive human trials have focused on trans-oral electrical stimulation …

Endothelial Iqgap1 Regulates Leukocyte Transmigration By Directing The Lbrc To The Site Of Diapedesis, David P. Sullivan, Prarthana J. Dalal, Fanny Jaulin, David B. Sacks, Geri Kreitzer, William A. Muller

Publications and Research

Transendothelial migration (TEM) of leukocytes across the endothelium is critical for inflammation. In the endothelium, TEM requires the coordination of membrane movements and cytoskeletal interactions, including, prominently, recruitment of the lateral border recycling compartment (LBRC). The scaffold protein IQGAP1 was recently identified in a screen for LBRC-interacting proteins. Knockdown of endothelial IQGAP1 disrupted the directed movement of the LBRC and substantially reduced leukocyte TEM. Expression of truncated IQGAP1 constructs demonstrated that the calponin homology domain is required for IQGAP1 localization to endothelial borders and that the IQ domain, on the same IQGAP1 polypeptide, is required for its function in TEM. …

Equalization Of Four Cardiovascular Risk Algorithms After Systematic Recalibration: Individual-Participant Meta-Analysis Of 86 Prospective Studies, Lisa Pennells, Stephen Kaptoge, Angela Wood, Mike Sweeting, Xiaohui Zhao, Ian White, Stephen Burgess, Peter Willeit, Thomas Bolton, Karel G. M. Moons, Yvonne T. Van Der Schouw, Randi Selmer, Kay-Tee Khaw, Vilmundur Gudnason, Gerd Assman, Philippe Amouyel, Veikko Salomaa, Mika Kivimaki, Borge G. Nordestgaard, Michael J. Blaha, Lewis H. Kuller, Hermann Brenner, Richard F. Gillum, Christa Meisinger, Ian Ford, Matthew W. Knuiman, Annika Rosengren, Debbie A. Lawlor, Henry Volzke, Cyrus Cooper, Alejandro Marin Ibañez, Edoardo Casiglia, Jussi Kauhanen, Jackie A. Cooper, Beatriz Rodriguez, Johan Sundstrom, Elizabeth Barrett-Connor, Rachel Dankner, Paul J. Nietert, Karina W. Davidson, Robert B. Wallace, Dan G. Blazer, Cecilia Bjorkelund, Chiara Donfrancesco, Harlan M. Krumholz, Aulikki Nissinen, Barry R. Davis, Sean Coady, Peter H. Whincup, Torben Jorgensen, Pierre Ducimetiere, Maurizo Trevisan, Gunnar Engstrom, Carlos J. Crespo, Tom W. Meade, Marjolein Visser, Daan Kromhout, Stefan Kiechl, Makoto Daimon, Jackie F. Price, Agustin Gomez De La Camara, J. Wouter Jukema, Benoit Lamarche, Altan Onat, Leon A. Simons, Maryam Kavousi, Yoav Ben-Shlomo, John Gallacher, Jacqueline M. Dekker, Hisatomi Arima, Nawar Shara, Robert W. Tipping, Ronan Roussel, Eric J. Brunner, Wolfgang Koenig, Masaru Sakurai, Jelena Pavlovic, Ron T. Gansevoort, Dorothea Nagel, Uri Goldbourt, Elizabeth L. M. Barr, Luigi Palmieri, Inger Njolstad, Shinichi Sato, W. M. Monique Verschuren, Cherian V. Varghese, Ian Graham, Oyere Onuma, Philip Greenland, Mark Woodward, Majid Ezzati, Bruce M. Psaty, Naveed Sattar, Rod Jackson, Paul M. Ridker, Nancy R. Cook, Ralph B. D'Agostino Sr., Simone G. Thompson, John Danesh, Emanuele Di Angelantonio

Publications and Research

Aims: There is debate about the optimum algorithm for cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk estimation. We conducted head-to-head comparisons of four algorithms recommended by primary prevention guidelines, before and after ‘recalibration’, a method that adapts risk algorithms to take account of differences in the risk characteristics of the populations being studied.

Methods & Results: Using individual-participant data on 360737 participants without CVD at baseline in 86 prospective studies from 22 countries, we compared the Framingham risk score (FRS), Systematic COronary Risk Evaluation (SCORE), pooled cohort equations (PCE), and Reynolds risk score (RRS). We calculated measures of risk discrimination and calibration, and …

Liver Enzymes And Risk Of Ischemic Heart Disease And Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Mendelian Randomization Study, Junxi Liu, Shiu Lun Au Yeung, Gabriel M. Leung, C. Mary Schooling

Publications and Research

We used Mendelian randomization to estimate the causal effects of the liver enzymes, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and gamma glutamyltransferase (GGT), on diabetes and cardiovascular disease, using genetic variants predicting these liver enzymes at genome wide significance applied to extensively genotyped case-control studies of diabetes (DIAGRAM) and coronary artery disease (CAD)/myocardial infarction (MI) (CARDIoGRAMplusC4D 1000 Genomes). Genetically higher ALT was associated with higher risk of diabetes, odds ratio (OR) 2.99 per 100% change in concentration (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.62 to 5.52) but ALP OR 0.92 (95% CI 0.71 to 1.19) and GGT OR 0.88 (95% CI 0.75 …

Infective Endocarditis In The U.S., 1998–2009: A Nationwide Study, David H. Bor, Steffie Woolhandler, Rachel Nardin, David Brusch, David U. Himmelstein

Publications and Research

Background
Previous studies based on local case series estimated the annual incidence of endocarditis in the U.S. at about 4 per 100,000 population. Small-scale studies elsewhere have reported similar incidence rates. However, no nationally-representative population-based studies have verified these estimates.

Methods and Findings
Using the 1998–2009 Nationwide Inpatient Sample, which provides diagnoses from about 8 million U.S. hospitalizations annually, we examined endocarditis hospitalizations, bacteriology, co-morbidities, outcomes and costs. Hospital admissions for endocarditis rose from 25,511 in 1998 to 38, 976 in 2009 (12.7 per 100,000 population in 2009). The age-adjusted endocarditis admission rate increased 2.4% annually. The proportion of patients …

Estimated Birth Weight And Adult Cardiovascular Risk Factors In A Developing Southern Chinese Population: A Cross Sectional Study, C. Mary Schooling, C. Q. Jiang, T. H. Lam, B. J. Cowling, S. L. Yeung, W. S. Zhang, K. K. Cheng, G. M. Leung

Publications and Research

Background: Birth weight is negatively associated with cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, but the associations are less well-established in developing populations where birth weight is often unavailable. We studied the association of birth weight and cardiovascular risk, using birth rank as an instrumental variable, in Southern China.

Methods: We used published data on birth weight by birth rank from an appropriate population and baseline data from the Guangzhou Biobank Cohort Study phases 2 & 3 (2005-8) to examine the adjusted associations, using instrumental variable analysis, of birth weight with clinically measured cardiovascular risk factors and the metabolic syndrome in older …