The effect of external stimulation on functional networks in the aging healthy human brain.

Understanding the brain changes occurring during aging can provide new insights for developing treatments that alleviate or reverse cognitive decline. Neurostimulation techniques have emerged as potential treatments for brain disorders and to improve cognitive functions. Nevertheless, given the ethical restrictions of neurostimulation approaches, in silico perturbation protocols based on causal whole-brain models are fundamental to gaining a mechanistic understanding of brain dynamics.

Whole-Brain Dynamics in Aging: Disruptions in Functional Connectivity and the Role of the Rich Club.

Normal aging causes disruptions in the brain that can lead to cognitive decline. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging studies have found significant age-related alterations in functional connectivity across various networks. Nevertheless, most of the studies have focused mainly on static functional connectivity.

The Aging Imageomics Study: rationale, design and baseline characteristics of the study population.

Biomarkers of aging are urgently needed to identify individuals at high risk of developing age-associated disease or disability. Growing evidence from population-based studies points to whole-body magnetic resonance imaging's (MRI) enormous potential for quantifying subclinical disease burden and for assessing changes that occur with aging in all organ systems. The Aging Imageomics Study aims to identify biomarkers of human aging by analyzing imaging, biopsychosocial, cardiovascular, metabolomic, lipidomic, and microbiome variables.

The Role First-Day Readings Play in a 3-Day Schedule of Self-Monitoring Home Blood Pressure Based on Prognostic Data. VAMPAHICA Study.

Background: The optimal schedule for self-monitoring home BP (SMHBP) readings is enormously important in the diagnosis of different phenotypes related to hypertension. The aim of this study was to determine the prognostic capacity of a 3-day SMHBP schedule when using or suppressing the first-day measurements in compiling the results.

Methods: A total of 767 newly diagnosed, nontreated patients with no history of cardiovascular disease (CVD) were followed for 6.

High levels of fasting glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin values are associated with hyperfiltration in a Spanish prediabetes cohort. The PREDAPS Study.

Aim: This study aimed to investigate whether different levels of fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) in prediabetes are associated with hyperfiltration.

Methods: A prospective cohort of 2,022 individuals aged 30-74 years took part in the PREDAPS Study. One cohort of 1,184 participants with prediabetes and another cohort of 838 participants with normal FPG and normal HbA1c were followed for 5 years.

Analysis of the location of retinal lesions in central retinographies of patients with Type 2 diabetes.

Purpose: To describe the distribution of Type 2 DM retinal lesions and determine whether it is symmetrical between the two eyes, is random or follows a certain pattern.

Methods: Cross-sectional study of Type 2 DM patients who had been referred for an outpatients' ophthalmology visit for diabetic retinopathy screening in primary health care. Retinal photographic images were taken using central projection non-mydriatic retinography.

The effects of copayment in primary health care: evidence from a natural experiment.

Objective: Evaluate the effects of the 'euro per prescription' on primary health care services (number of doctor visits), through a retrospective cohort study of health care users in Catalonia (Spain). This policy, implemented in Catalonia on 23 June 2012, only lasted 6 months. This policy was introduced to improve budgetary imbalances in Spain and boost the regional and national governments' budgets.

Practical application of the ATOM study: Treatment efficacy of antihypertensive drugs in monotherapy or combination (ATOM metaanalysis according to PRISMA statement); tables for the use of antihypertensive drugs in monotherapy or combination.

Background: The response to antihypertensive drugs is predictable. The absence of precise prescription recommendations to treat arterial hypertension (HT) lead to use drugs unable to reduce blood pressure (BP) to target values.We published ATOM study, in which we found significant differences in the ability to reduce BP between the different drugs.

What is the optimal cut-off threshold in self-home blood pressure measurement?: A cohort study according to STROBE statement.

Two aspects arise concerning the use of self-measured blood pressure monitoring to diagnose white-coat hypertension (WCH): the presence of target organ damage (TOD) and the normal cut-off threshold. This study aims to evaluate the cardiovascular risk of WCH according to different self-measured blood pressure normal cut-off thresholds and the influence of TOD at baseline.In all, 678 patients were followed for 6.

Prognostic Value of the Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate Decline in Hypertensive Patients Without Chronic Kidney Disease.

Background: Our objective of this study was to determine if rate of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) decline and its intensity was associated with cardiovascular risk and death in patients with hypertension whose baseline eGFR was higher than 60 ml/minute/1.73 m2.

Methods: This study comprised 2,516 patients with hypertension who had had at least 2 serum creatinine measurements over a 4-year period.

Duration and dosing of Proton Pump Inhibitors associated with high incidence of chronic kidney disease in population-based cohort.

Background: Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPIs) have been associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Our objective was to quantify the association between PPI use and incident CKD in a population-based cohort.

Methods And Findings: We used a population-based retrospective cohort, including people aged 15 years or over, between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2012.

Prediabetes is associated with glomerular hyperfiltration in a European Mediterranean cohort study.

Background: Glomerular hyperfiltration is well recognized as an early renal alteration in subjects with diabetes mellitus. However, what is not well-known is whether hyperfiltration also occurs in the early stages of hyperglycaemia, for instance in prediabetes. Identifying subjects with glomerular hyperfiltration from among those with prediabetes might be helpful to implement preventive and therapeutic strategies.

Effect of effervescent paracetamol on blood pressure: a crossover randomized clinical trial.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of effervescent paracetamol on office and ambulatory blood pressure (BP) compared with noneffervescent paracetamol in hypertensive patients.

Design: This was a multicenter open crossover randomized clinical trial.

Setting: Primary care centers in Catalonia and the Basque Country.

Glycaemic control and treatment of type 2 diabetes in adults aged 75 years or older.

Aim: The aim of this study was to assess glycaemic control and prescribing practices of antihyperglycaemic treatment in patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 aged 75 years or older.

Methods: We analysed data from health electronic records from 4,581 persons attended at primary healthcare centres of the Institut Català de la Salut (ICS), in the Girona Sud area of Catalonia, Spain, during 2013 and 2016. Variables such as age, gender, body mass index (BMI), diabetes duration, age at diabetes diagnosis, glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), creatinine, glomerular filtrate rate and the albumin/creatinine ratio in urine were collected.

The dynamic behaviour of metabolic syndrome and its components in an eight-year population-based cohort from the Mediterranean.

Background: The significant rise in the prevalence of obesity coincides with the considerable increase in the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MS) currently being observed worldwide. The components of MS are not static and their dynamics, such as the order of their occurrence, or the time of exposure to them are, as yet, unknown but could well be clinically relevant. Our objective was to study the dynamic behaviour of MS and its components in a large population-based cohort from a Mediterranean region.

Treatment efficacy of anti-hypertensive drugs in monotherapy or combination: ATOM systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials according to PRISMA statement.

Background: The relative efficacy of antihypertensive drugs/combinations is not well known. Identifying the most effective ones and the patients' characteristics associated with best performance of the drugs will improve management of hypertensive patients.

Objective: To assess the blood pressure (BP) reduction attributed to antihypertensive drugs and identify characteristics associated with BP decrease.

Chronic Kidney Disease and Diabetic Retinopathy in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes.

Purpose: To explore the relationship between chronic kidney disease (CKD) and diabetic retinopathy (DR) in a representative population of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) patients in Catalonia (Spain).

Methods: This was a population-based, cross-sectional study. A total of 28,344 patients diagnosed with DM2 who had recorded ophthalmologic and renal functional examinations were evaluated.

Noninsulin Antidiabetic Drugs for Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: Are We Respecting Their Contraindications?

Aim: To assess prescribing practices of noninsulin antidiabetic drugs (NIADs) in T2DM with several major contraindications according to prescribing information or clinical guidelines: renal failure, heart failure, liver dysfunction, or history of bladder cancer.

Methods: Cross-sectional, descriptive, multicenter study. Electronic medical records were retrieved from all T2DM subjects who attended primary care centers pertaining to the Catalan Health Institute in Catalonia in 2013 and were pharmacologically treated with any NIAD alone or in combination.

Effects of the Financial Crisis on Psychotropic Drug Consumption in a Cohort from a Semi-Urban Region in Catalonia, Spain.

Purpose: Evidence of whether the recent economic crisis has or has not had an effect on psychotropic drug consumption is very scarce. Our objective was to determine if there had in fact been an increase in psychotropic drug use as a result of the financial crisis.

Methods: In our study a retrospective cohort (between January 1, 2005, and December 31, 2012) was made up of individuals from the general population in a region in the northeast of Catalonia, Spain.

Impact of Loss of Work Productivity in Patients with Overactive Bladder Treated with Antimuscarinics in Spain: Study in Routine Clinical Practice Conditions.

Background: Overactive bladder (OAB) is a syndrome characterized by presenting symptoms of urgency, with or without urge incontinence, and normally accompanied by day and night frequency.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of lost work productivity [number of days of sick leave] in patients treated with fesoterodine versus tolterodine and solifenacin to treat OAB in Spain.

Methods: A retrospective, observational study was carried out using the records (digital databases) of actively working patients (2008-2013).

Comparison of different vascular risk engines in the identification of type 2 diabetes patients with high cardiovascular risk.

Background: Some authors consider that secondary prevention should be conducted for all DM2 patients, while others suggest that the drug preventive treatment should start or be increased depending on each patient's individual CVR, estimated using cardiovascular or coronary risk functions to identify the patients with a higher CVR. The principal objective of this study was to assess three different cardiovascular risk prediction models in type 2 diabetes patients.

Methods: Multicentre, cross-sectional descriptive study of 3,041 patients with type 2 diabetes and no history of cardiovascular disease.

Impact of chronic kidney disease on the prevalence of cardiovascular disease in patients with type 2 diabetes in Spain: PERCEDIME2 study.

Background: The presence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) increases the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) regardless of the presence of traditional cardiovascular risk factors. There is controversy about the impact of each of the manifestations of CKD on the prevalence of CVD, whether it is greater with decreased estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) or increased urine albumin creatinine ratio (UACR).

Methods: This study is a national cross-sectional study performed in primary care consults.