Publications by authors named "Arnulf Langhammer"

Introduction: Cluster analysis has previously revealed five reproducible subgroups of diabetes, differing in risks of diabetic complications. We aimed to examine the clusters' predictive ability for vascular complications as compared with established risk factors in a general adult diabetes population.

Research Design And Methods: Participants from the second (HUNT2, 1995-1997) and third (HUNT3, 2006-2008) surveys of the Norwegian population-based Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT Study) with adult-onset diabetes were included (n=1899).

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  • Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can be influenced by genetic factors and may stem from reduced lung growth during childhood, leading to lower lung function throughout life.
  • A polygenic risk score (PRS) was calculated using data from a large genome-wide association study and tested for its correlation with lung function in individuals aged 4-50 from multiple research cohorts.
  • Results indicated that higher PRS scores were associated with significantly lower lung function, measured by key indicators, starting from childhood and continuing into adulthood, regardless of smoking, sex, or asthma diagnosis.
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Myocardial infarction is a leading cause of death globally but is notoriously difficult to predict. We aimed to identify biomarkers of an imminent first myocardial infarction and design relevant prediction models. Here, we constructed a new case-cohort consortium of 2,018 persons without prior cardiovascular disease from six European cohorts, among whom 420 developed a first myocardial infarction within 6 months after the baseline blood draw.

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Background: Lung cancer risk prediction models might efficiently identify individuals who should be offered lung cancer screening. However, their performance has not been comprehensively evaluated in Europe. We aimed to externally validate and evaluate the performance of several risk prediction models that predict lung cancer incidence or mortality in prospective European cohorts.

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  • Researchers developed a protein-based risk score for predicting hip fractures using an aptamer-based proteomic platform that showed promise in initial studies.
  • The risk score demonstrated strong predictive capabilities and improved fracture discrimination when validated in additional health study cohorts and in a UK Biobank cohort.
  • While the proteomic risk score outperformed existing tools, including the FRAX assessment, its clinical usefulness beyond current methods and the modest improvement in prediction need further evaluation.
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Background And Aim: The relationship between socioeconomic status (SES), asthma and mortality is complex and multifaceted, and it is not established if educational level modifies the association between asthma and mortality. The aim was to study the association between asthma and mortality in Sweden and Norway and to what extent educational level modifies this association.

Participants And Methods: Within the Nordic EpiLung Study, >56,000 individuals aged 30-69 years participated in population-based surveys on asthma and associated risk factors in Sweden and Norway during 2005-2007.

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Introduction: In epidemiological studies, the age at asthma onset is often defined by patients' self-reported age at diagnosis. The reliability of this report might be questioned. Our objective was to evaluate the agreement between self-reported and registered age at asthma diagnosis and assess features contributing to the agreement.

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Hip fractures are associated with significant disability, high cost, and mortality. However, the exact biological mechanisms underlying susceptibility to hip fractures remain incompletely understood. In an exploratory search of the underlying biology as reflected through the circulating proteome, we performed a comprehensive Circulating Proteome Association Study (CPAS) meta-analysis for incident hip fractures.

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Objectives: Rheumatoid arthritis has been associated with increased fracture risk. New treatments have improved the course of the disease substantially, but it is not clear if this influences fracture risk. We examined if rheumatoid arthritis, overall and according to disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), is associated with a risk of major osteoporotic fractures.

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Background: Respiratory symptoms are a common public health issue that can partly be attributed to preventable risk factors, such as tobacco smoking and occupational exposure, which are more common in individuals with lower socioeconomic status.

Objective: Our aim was to evaluate the social gradient in respiratory symptoms in Nordic countries.

Methods: This study included participants aged 30-65 years from five cross-sectional population-based questionnaire surveys in 2016 in Finland and Sweden (N = 25,423) and in 2017-2019 in Norway (N = 27,107).

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  • A meta-analysis of data from 46 cohorts found that individuals who reported falling in the past year had an increased risk of fractures, highlighting falls as an important factor for fracture risk assessment.
  • Previous falls were correlated with a significant rise in fracture risks for both men and women, with hazard ratios indicating that the risk is greater for men.
  • The study suggests that falls should be included in the FRAX® algorithm, which currently does not consider this important risk factor for osteoporotic fractures.
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  • Environmental particulate matter (PM) exposure is linked to higher mortality rates from various diseases, prompting a study on the impact of occupational exposure to vapors, gasses, dusts, and fumes (VGDF).
  • Using data from the FinEsS study in Helsinki, researchers analyzed a 24-year follow-up of mortality rates, comparing those with high VGDF exposure to those with no exposure.
  • Results indicated that individuals with high VGDF exposure had significantly increased risks of dying from cardiovascular issues, respiratory diseases, and dementia, highlighting the importance of reducing such occupational exposures.
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To estimate occurrence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) over the life-course in the Norwegian population, national health registries are a vital source of information since they fully represent the entire non-institutionalised population. However, as they are mainly established for administrative purposes, more knowledge about how NCDs are recorded in the registries is needed. To establish this, we begin by counting the number of individuals registered annually with one or more NCDs in any of the registries.

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Osteoporotic fracture is among the most common and costly of diseases. While reasonably heritable, its genetic determinants have remained elusive. Forearm fractures are the most common clinically recognized osteoporotic fractures with a relatively high heritability.

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Aging is associated with low bone and lean mass as well as alterations in the gut microbiota (GM). In this study, we determined whether the reduced bone mass and relative lean mass observed in old mice could be transferred to healthy young mice by GM transplantation (GMT). GM from old (21-month-old) and young adult (5-month-old) donors was used to colonize germ-free (GF) mice in three separate studies involving still growing 5- or 11-week-old recipients and 17-week-old recipients with minimal bone growth.

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Introduction: The prevalence of COPD tends to level off in populations with decreasing prevalence of smoking but the extent of underdiagnosis in such populations needs further investigation.

Aim: To investigate underdiagnosis and misclassification of COPD with a focus on socio-economy, lifestyle determinants and healthcare utilization.

Method: The 1839 participants were selected from two ongoing large-scale epidemiological research programs: The Obstructive Lung Disease in Northern Sweden Studies and the West Sweden Asthma Study.

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Background: We sought to develop a proteomics-based risk model for lung cancer and evaluate its risk-discriminatory performance in comparison with a smoking-based risk model (PLCOm2012) and a commercially available autoantibody biomarker test.

Methods: We designed a case-control study nested in 6 prospective cohorts, including 624 lung cancer participants who donated blood samples at most 3 years prior to lung cancer diagnosis and 624 smoking-matched cancer free participants who were assayed for 302 proteins. We used 470 case-control pairs from 4 cohorts to select proteins and train a protein-based risk model.

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Background: To evaluate whether circulating proteins are associated with survival after lung cancer diagnosis, and whether they can improve prediction of prognosis.

Methods: We measured up to 1159 proteins in blood samples from 708 participants in 6 cohorts. Samples were collected within 3 years prior to lung cancer diagnosis.

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Appendicular lean mass (ALM) associates with mobility and bone mineral density (BMD). While associations between gut microbiota composition and ALM have been reported, previous studies rely on relatively small sample sizes. Here, we determine the associations between prevalent gut microbes and ALM in large discovery and replication cohorts with information on relevant confounders within the population-based Norwegian HUNT cohort (n = 5196, including women and men).

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  • A major study involving 580,869 participants identified 1,020 genetic signals linked to lung function impairment, which is crucial in understanding chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and predicting mortality.
  • * The research found 559 genes related to lung function that were connected to 29 different biological pathways and demonstrated variations across ancestry, age, and smoking habits.
  • * Findings suggest potential new targets for therapy by highlighting specific genetic variants and proteins, ultimately contributing to better understanding and treatment of COPD.
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The Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT) is a population-based cohort of ∼229,000 individuals recruited in four waves beginning in 1984 in Trøndelag County, Norway. Approximately 88,000 of these individuals have available genetic data from array genotyping. HUNT participants were recruited during four community-based recruitment waves and provided information on health-related behaviors, self-reported diagnoses, family history of disease, and underwent physical examinations.

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Circulating concentrations of metabolites (collectively called kynurenines) in the kynurenine pathway of tryptophan metabolism increase during inflammation, particularly in response to interferon-gamma (IFN-γ). Neopterin and the kynurenine/tryptophan ratio (KTR) are IFN-γ induced inflammatory markers, and together with C-reactive protein (CRP) and kynurenines they are associated with various diseases, but comprehensive data on the strength of associations of inflammatory markers with circulating concentrations of kynurenines are lacking. We measured circulating concentrations of neopterin, CRP, tryptophan and seven kynurenines in 5314 controls from 20 cohorts in the Lung Cancer Cohort Consortium (LC3).

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