Implementation of a safety program initiative for monitoring infusion disease modifying therapies for multiple sclerosis.

Objective: To determine the efficacy of a safety program designed for monitoring infusion disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) prescribed for multiple sclerosis (MS).

Background: Infusion-based high-efficacy DMTs represent a major advance in the treatment of MS. However, safe administration requires close monitoring.

Body Mass Index From Early-, Mid-, and Older-Adulthood and Risk of Heart Failure and Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease: MESA.

Background Obesity contributes significantly to risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) and especially for heart failure (HF). An elevated body mass index (BMI) in older adults might not carry the same risk as in younger adults, but measured weights at other lifetime points are often not available. We determined the associations of self-reported weights from early- and mid-adulthood, after accounting for measured weight at older age, with incident HF/ASCVD risk.

Association of Serum Sex Hormones with Hemostatic Factors in Women On and Off Hormone Therapy: The Multiethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.

Background: Hormone therapy (HT) is associated with increased risk of both venous and arterial thrombosis, which are multifactorial in origin.

Objectives: Our objectives were twofold: first, we sought to examine associations between endogenous serum sex hormone levels and biomarkers of thrombosis and/or coagulation in postmenopausal hormone nonusers. Second, we separately studied the associations between serum sex hormone levels and biomarkers of thrombosis and/or coagulation in postmenopausal hormone users considering the fact that pattern of circulating hormones is different in women taking exogenous hormones.

Associations of body composition measures and C2, a marker for small artery elasticity: The MESA.

Objective: Lower C2, a continuous blood pressure waveform characteristic asserted to represent small artery elasticity, predicts future cardiovascular disease events. It is hypothesized that the paradoxical positive association between body mass index (BMI) and C2 may reflect muscle instead of excess fat.

Methods: In a multi-ethnic, community-living cohort of 1,960 participants, computed tomography scans of the abdomen were used to measure visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and total abdominal muscle tissue (TAMT), and applanation tonometry of the radial arteries was used to assess C2.