Racial and regional disparities in the risk of noncommunicable disease between sub-Saharan black and European white patients.

Objectives: Greater vulnerability of Black vs. White individuals to cardiovascular disease (CVD) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) is well charted in the United States, but studies involving sub-Saharan blacks are scarce.

Methods: Baseline data (2021-2024) were collected in 168 sub-Saharan Blacks and 93 European Whites in an ongoing clinical trial (NCT04299529), using standardized patient selection criteria.

Urinary Proteomics and Systems Biology Link Eight Proteins to the Higher Risk of Hypertension and Related Complications in Blacks Versus Whites.

Blacks are more prone to salt-sensitive hypertension than Whites. This cross-sectional analysis of a multi-ethnic cohort aimed to search for proteins potentially involved in the susceptibility to salt sensitivity, hypertension, and hypertension-related complications. The study included individuals enrolled in African Prospective Study on the Early Detection and Identification of Cardiovascular Disease and Hypertension (African-PREDICT), Flemish Study of the Environment, Genes and Health Outcomes (FLEMENGHO), Prospective Cohort Study in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus for Validation of Biomarkers (PROVALID)-Austria, and Urinary Proteomics Combined with Home Blood Pressure Telemonitoring for Health Care Reform Trial (UPRIGHT-HTM).

Heart rate reactivity, recovery, and endurance of the incremental shuttle walk test in patients prone to heart failure.

Aims: Few randomized trials assessed the changes over time in the chronotropic heart rate (HR) reactivity (CHR), HR recovery (HRR) and exercise endurance (EE) in response to the incremental shuttle walk test (ISWT). We addressed this issue by analysing the open HOMAGE (Heart OMics in Aging) trial.

Methods: In HOMAGE, 527 patients prone to heart failure were randomized to usual treatment with or without spironolactone (25-50 mg/day).

Osteoporosis in Relation to a Bone-Related Aging Biomarker Derived from the Urinary Proteomic Profile: A Population Study.

Screening for and prevention of osteoporosis and osteoporotic fractures is imperative, given the high burden on individuals and society. This study constructed and validated an aging-related biomarker derived from the urinary proteomic profile (UPP) indicative of osteoporosis (UPPost-age). In a prospective population study done in northern Belgium (1985-2019), participants were invited for a follow-up examination in 2005-2010 and participants in the 2005-2010 examination again invited in 2009-2013.

Efficacy of antihypertensive treatment for target organ protection in patients with masked hypertension (ANTI-MASK): a multicentre, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

Background: Masked hypertension is associated with target organ damage (TOD) and adverse health outcomes, but whether antihypertensive treatment improves TOD in patients with masked hypertension is unproven.

Methods: In this multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial at 15 Chinese hospitals, untreated outpatients aged 30-70 years with an office blood pressure (BP) of <140/<90 mm Hg and 24-h, daytime or nighttime ambulatory BP of ≥130/≥80, ≥135/≥85, or ≥120/≥70 mm Hg were enrolled. Patients had ≥1 sign of TOD: electrocardiographic left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) ≥1400 cm/s, or urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR) ≥3.

An outcome-driven threshold for pulse pressure amplification.

Pulse pressure amplification (PPA) is the brachial-to-aortic pulse pressure ratio and decreases with age and cardiovascular risk factors. This individual-participant meta-analysis of population studies aimed to define an outcome-driven threshold for PPA. Incidence rates and standardized multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) of cardiovascular and coronary endpoints associated with PPA, as assessed by the SphygmoCor software, were evaluated in the International Database of Central Arterial Properties for Risk Stratification (n = 5608).

Urinary proteomic signature of mineralocorticoid receptor antagonism by spironolactone: evidence from the HOMAGE trial.

Objective: Heart failure (HF) is characterised by collagen deposition. Urinary proteomic profiling (UPP) followed by peptide sequencing identifies parental proteins, for over 70% derived from collagens. This study aimed to refine understanding of the antifibrotic action of spironolactone.

Mortality and Cardiovascular End Points In Relation to the Aortic Pulse Wave Components: An Individual-Participant Meta-Analysis.

Background: Wave separation analysis enables individualized evaluation of the aortic pulse wave components. Previous studies focused on the pressure height with overall positive but differing results. In the present analysis, we assessed the associations of the pressure of forward and backward (P and P) pulse waves with prospective cardiovascular end points, with extended analysis for time to pressure peak (T and T).

Association of Air Pollution with a Urinary Biomarker of Biological Aging and Effect Modification by Vitamin K in the FLEMENGHO Prospective Population Study.

Background: A recently developed urinary peptidomics biological aging clock can be used to study accelerated human aging. From 1990 to 2019, exposure to airborne particulate matter (PM) became the leading environmental risk factor worldwide.

Objectives: This study investigated whether air pollution exposure is associated with accelerated urinary peptidomic aging, independent of calendar age, and whether this association is modified by other risk factors.

Blood pressure and renal function responses in workers exposed to lead for up to six years.

The Study for Promotion of Health in Recycling Lead (SPHERL) assessed the blood pressure (BP) and renal function (RF) responses for up to 6 years in the workers without previous occupational lead exposure. BP was the average of five consecutive readings and the estimated glomerular filtration rate was derived from serum creatinine (eGFRcrt) and cystatin C (eGFRcys). Blood lead (BL) was measured by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (detection limit 0.

Urinary peptides provide information about the risk of mortality across a spectrum of diseases and scenarios.

Background: There is evidence of pre-established vulnerability in individuals that increases the risk of their progression to severe disease or death, although the mechanisms causing this are still not fully understood. Previous research has demonstrated that a urinary peptide classifier (COV50) predicts disease progression and death from SARS-CoV-2 at an early stage, indicating that the outcome prediction may be partly due to vulnerabilities that are already present. The aim of this study is to examine the ability of COV50 to predict future non-COVID-19-related mortality, and evaluate whether the pre-established vulnerability can be generic and explained on a molecular level by urinary peptides.

Genome-wide analysis of DNA methylation and its relationship with serum homocysteine levels in patients with hypertension.

Background: Homocysteine (Hcy) is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, and elevated plasma Hcy levels could aggravate vascular injury in hypertension. Hyperhomocysteinemia can change the methylation status of global DNA and specific genes. In the present study, we aim to examine the comprehensive influence of Hcy levels on DNA methylation status in patients with hypertension.

Blood pressure and hypertension in relation to lead exposure updated according to present-day blood lead levels.

Lead is an environmental hazard that should be addressed worldwide. Over time, human exposure to lead in the Western world has fallen drastically to the levels comparable to those in humans living in the pre-industrial era, who were mainly exposed to natural sources of lead. To re-evaluate the health risks possibly associated with present-day lead exposure, a three-pronged approach was applied.

Urinary proteomics combined with home blood pressure telemonitoring for health care reform trial-First progress report.

High blood pressure (BP) and type-2 diabetes (T2DM) are forerunners of chronic kidney disease and left ventricular dysfunction. Home BP telemonitoring (HTM) and urinary peptidomic profiling (UPP) are technologies enabling risk stratification and personalized prevention. UPRIGHT-HTM (NCT04299529) is an investigator-initiated, multicenter, open-label, randomized trial with blinded endpoint evaluation designed to assess the efficacy of HTM plus UPP (experimental group) over HTM alone (control group) in guiding treatment in asymptomatic patients, aged 55-75 years, with ≥5 cardiovascular risk factors.

Statistical approaches applicable in managing OMICS data: Urinary proteomics as exemplary case.

With urinary proteomics profiling (UPP) as exemplary omics technology, this review describes a workflow for the analysis of omics data in large study populations. The proposed workflow includes: (i) planning omics studies and sample size considerations; (ii) preparing the data for analysis; (iii) preprocessing the UPP data; (iv) the basic statistical steps required for data curation; (v) the selection of covariables; (vi) relating continuously distributed or categorical outcomes to a series of single markers (e.g.

Blood pressure and cardiovascular risk in relation to birth weight and urinary sodium: an individual-participant meta-analysis of European family-based population studies.

Background: Although the relation of salt intake with blood pressure (BP) is linear, it is U-shaped for mortality and cardiovascular disease (CVD). This individual-participant meta-analysis explored whether the relation of hypertension, death or CVD with 24-h urinary sodium excretion (UVNA) or sodium-to-potassium (UNAK) ratio was modified by birth weight.

Methods: Families were randomly enrolled in the Flemish Study on Genes, Environment and Health Outcomes (1985-2004) and the European Project on Genes in Hypertension (1999-2001).