Effect of menopausal hormone therapy on proteins associated with senescence and inflammation.

Background: Estrogen may inhibit cell senescence that contributes to age-related disorders. This study determined the effects of menopausal hormone treatments on circulating levels of markers of cell senescence.

Methods: Growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15), tumor necrosis factor receptor 1 (TNFR1), FAS, and macrophage inflammatory protein 1α (MIP1α) were measured in serum using multiplexed bead-based assays and compared among menopausal women participating in the Kronos Early Estrogen Prevention Study randomized to either placebo (n = 38), oral conjugated equine estrogen (oCEE, n = 37), or transdermal 17β-estradiol (tE2, n = 34).

Identifying incident Parkinson's disease using administrative diagnostic codes: a validation study.

Background: Administrative databases that capture diagnostic codes are increasingly being used worldwide for research because they can save time and reduce costs. However, assessing validity is necessary before defining diseases using only diagnostic codes in research applications.

Objective: Our objective was to assess the validity of using diagnostic codes to identify incident Parkinson's disease (PD) cases in Olmsted County, Minnesota using an established standard for comparison (1976-2005).

Intracardiac ablation for atrioventricular nodal reentry tachycardia using a 6 mm distal electrode cryoablation catheter: Prospective, multicenter, North American study (ICY-AVNRT STUDY).

Introduction: Radiofrequency (RF) ablation is effective for slow pathway ablation, but carries a risk of inadvertent AV block requiring permanent pacing. By comparison, cryoablation with a 4-mm distal electrode catheter has not been reported to cause permanent AV block but has been shown to be less effective than RF ablation. We sought to define the safety and efficacy of a 6-mm distal electrode cryoablation catheter for slow pathway ablation in patients with atrioventricular nodal reentry tachycardia (AVNRT).

Characterization of health care utilization in patients receiving implantable cardioverter-defibrillator therapies: An analysis of the managed ventricular pacing trial.

Background: Implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) are effective in terminating lethal arrhythmias, but little is known about the degree of health care utilization (HCU) after ICD therapies.

Objective: Using data from the managed ventricular pacing trial, we sought to identify the incidence and types of HCU in ICD patients after receiving ICD therapy (shocks or antitachycardia pacing [ATP]).

Methods: We analyzed HCU events (ventricular tachyarrhythmia [VTA]-related, heart failure-related, ICD implant procedure-related, ICD system-related, or other) and their association with ICD therapies (shocked ventricular tachycardia episode, ATP-terminated ventricular tachycardia episode, and inappropriately shocked episode).

Feedback to providers improves evidence-based implantable cardioverter-defibrillator programming and reduces shocks.

Background: Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) shocks are associated with increased anxiety, health care utilization, and potentially mortality.

Objective: The purpose of the Shock-Less Study was to determine if providing feedback reports to physicians on their adherence to evidence-based shock reduction programming could improve their programming behavior and reduce shocks.

Methods: Shock-Less enrolled primary prevention (PP) and secondary prevention (SP) ICD patients between 2009 and 2012 at 118 study centers worldwide and followed patients longitudinally after their ICD implant.

Do baseline diastolic echocardiographic parameters predict outcome after resynchronization therapy? Results from the PROSPECT trial.

Introduction: Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) can improve clinical and cardiac structural status in heart failure patients. The role of baseline diastolic echocardiographic parameters to characterize the likelihood of positive outcomes is not well known. We explored relationships between diastolic parameters and outcomes 6 months after CRT implant in the Predictors of Response to CRT (PROSPECT) Trial.

Lack of current implantable cardioverter defibrillator guidelines application for primary prevention of sudden cardiac death in Latin American patients with heart failure: a cross-sectional study.

Aims: This cross-sectional study evaluated the application of accepted international implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) guidelines for primary prevention of sudden cardiac death in patients with heart failure.

Methods And Results: The PLASMA (Probabilidad de Sufrir Muerte Arritmica) study was designed to characterize management of cardiac patients in Latin America. Twelve centres included 1958 consecutively admitted patients in cardiology units in 2008 and 2009.

Paced left ventricular QRS width and ECG parameters predict outcomes after cardiac resynchronization therapy: PROSPECT-ECG substudy.

Background: For patients with symptomatic New York Heart Association class III or IV, ejection fraction ≤ 35%, and QRS ≥ 130 ms, cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) has become an established treatment option. However, use of these implant criteria fails to result in clinical or echocardiographic improvement in 30% to 45% of CRT patients.

Methods And Results: The Predictors of Response to CRT (PROSPECT)-ECG is a substudy of the prospective observational PROSPECT trial.

Prognostic significance of atrial arrhythmias in a primary prevention ICD population.

Introduction: We investigated whether primary prevention implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) patients with atrial arrhythmias are at higher risk for ICD shocks and mortality compared to patients without atrial arrhythmias in a subanalysis of the PREPARE study.

Methods And Results: Details of the PREPARE study design and results have been previously reported. We now included 537 of the 700 patients enrolled in PREPARE.

Cardiac resynchronization therapy may benefit patients with left ventricular ejection fraction >35%: a PROSPECT trial substudy.

Aims: Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is currently limited to those with left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) < or =35%. To evaluate whether patients with LVEF >35% might benefit from CRT, we performed a retrospective analysis of the predictors of response to CRT (PROSPECT) database.

Methods And Results: PROSPECT was a prospective, multicentre study that enrolled CRT patients based on enrolling centre-evaluated LVEF <35%, but all echocardiograms were subsequently analysed by a core laboratory.

Does microvolt T-wave alternans testing predict ventricular tachyarrhythmias in patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy and prophylactic defibrillators? The MASTER (Microvolt T Wave Alternans Testing for Risk Stratification of Post-Myocardial Infarction Patients) trial.

Objectives: The purpose of this trial was to determine whether microvolt T-wave alternans (MTWA) predicts ventricular tachyarrhythmic events (VTEs) in post-myocardial infarction patients with left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) < or =30%.

Background: Previous studies have established MTWA as a predictor for total and arrhythmic mortality, but its ability to identify prophylactic implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) recipients most likely to experience VTEs remains uncertain.

Methods: This prospective trial was conducted at 50 U.

Use of an intracardiac electrogram eliminates the need for a surface ECG during implantable cardioverter-defibrillator follow-up.

Background: A surface electrocardiogram (SECG) for pacing threshold measurements during routine implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) follow-up can be cumbersome. This study evaluated the use of an intrathoracic far-field electrogram (EGM) derived between the Can and superior vena cava (SVC) electrode -- the Leadless electrocardiogram (LLECG), in dual chamber ICDs in performing pacing threshold tests.

Methods: The LLECG was evaluated prospectively during atrial and ventricular pacing threshold testing as a substudy of the Comparison of Empiric to Physician-Tailored Programming of Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillators trial (EMPIRIC) in which dual chamber ICDs were implanted in 888 patients.

Chemical exposures and Parkinson's disease: a population-based case-control study.

The putative association between pesticide exposures and Parkinson's disease (PD) remains controversial. We identified all subjects who developed PD in Olmsted County, Minnesota, from 1976 through 1995, and matched them by age (+/- 1 year) and sex to general population controls. We assessed exposures to chemical products by means of telephone interview with cases, controls, or their proxies (149 cases; 129 controls).

The Mayo Clinic cohort study of personality and aging: design and sampling, reliability and validity of instruments, and baseline description.

We established a historical cohort of 7,216 subjects who completed the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) at the Mayo Clinic from 1962 through 1965 for research (not clinical indication), and who resided within a 120-mile radius centered in Rochester, Minnesota. We describe here the overall cohort design and sampling, we report results concerning reliability and validity, and we describe age and sex patterns at baseline for four MMPI scores of primary interest (depression, anxiety, social introversion, and negativity). Subjects excluded from the cohort because of missing data had MMPI scores similar to subjects included (after appropriate rescaling).

Risk of cancer after the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease: a historical cohort study.

We investigated the risk of cancer after the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease (PD) through a historical cohort study. We used the medical records-linkage system of the Rochester Epidemiology Project to identify all incident cases of PD in Olmsted County, Minnesota from 1976 through 1995. Patients with PD were matched by age (+/- 1 year) and gender to referent subjects from the same population.

The Mayo Clinic family study of Parkinson's disease: study design, instruments, and sample characteristics.

We describe here the Mayo Clinic Family Study of Parkinson's disease (PD), including the overall study design (historical cohort study of relatives from birth to onset of PD or censoring), the data collection instruments, the strategies implemented to prevent or measure biases, and the sample obtained. These methodological details may provide assistance to other investigators designing studies of the familial aggregation of PD or other aging-related chronic diseases. We investigated the incidence of PD and other neurodegenerative diseases among 1,001 first-degree relatives of 162 patients with PD and 851 relatives of 147 controls representative of the population of Olmsted County, Minn.

Genome linkage screen for prostate cancer susceptibility loci: results from the Mayo Clinic Familial Prostate Cancer Study.

Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers among men and has long been recognized to occur in familial clusters. Brothers and sons of affected men have a twofold to threefold increased risk of developing prostate cancer. However, identification of genetic susceptibility loci for prostate cancer has been extremely difficult.

Luteinizing hormone beta polymorphism and risk of familial and sporadic prostate cancer.

Background: Circulating testosterone plays an important role in maintenance and growth of prostate cells. Luteinizing hormone (LH), secreted from the anterior pituitary, signals testicular Leydig cells to secrete testosterone. A genetic variant of the LH-beta protein, LH-betaV, exists in up to 40% of Caucasians and is more bioactive than the wild-type protein.

Mutations in CHEK2 associated with prostate cancer risk.

The DNA-damage-signaling pathway has been implicated in all human cancers. However, the genetic defects and the mechanisms of this pathway in prostate carcinogenesis remain poorly understood. In this study, we analyzed CHEK2, the upstream regulator of p53 in the DNA-damage-signaling pathway, in several groups of patients with prostate cancer.

Survival study of Parkinson disease in Olmsted County, Minnesota.

Objective: To compare survival in incident cases of Parkinson disease (PD) with survival in subjects free of PD from the general population.

Methods: We used the medical records linkage system of the Rochester Epidemiology Project to identify incident cases of PD in Olmsted County, Minnesota, for the period 1976-1995. Cases were matched by age and sex to referent subjects from the same population.

Analysis of the RNASEL gene in familial and sporadic prostate cancer.

The RNASEL gene on chromosome 1q25 was recently identified as a candidate gene for hereditary prostate cancer (PC). To confirm these findings, we screened 326 patients from 163 families with familial PC for potential germline mutations, by use of conformation-sensitive gel electrophoresis, followed by direct sequence analysis. A total of six variants were identified, including one intronic and five exonic changes (three missense and two silent alterations).

Nonfatal cancer preceding Parkinson's disease: a case-control study.

Background: We conducted a population-based case-control study to investigate the association of Parkinson's disease (PD) with preceding nonfatal cancer.

Methods: We used the medical records-linkage system of the Rochester Epidemiology Project to identify all incident cases of PD in Olmsted County, MN (1976-1995). Each case was matched by age and sex to a general population control.

Risk tables for parkinsonism and Parkinson's disease.

We applied the incidence rates of parkinsonism and Parkinson's disease (PD) from Olmsted County, MN (1976-1990) to a hypothetical cohort undergoing the mortality rates observed in Minnesota, and computed the lifetime risk and the remaining lifetime risk of developing parkinsonism and PD. These risks were compared to cumulative incidences that do not take competing risks of death into account. The lifetime risk of developing parkinsonism from birth was 4.