30-year trends in asthma and the trends in relation to hospitalization and mortality.

Introduction: The present study examines how trends in the prevalence of asthma during the past three decades associate with hospitalization and mortality during the same period.

Methods: Altogether 54 320 subjects aged 25-74 years were examined in seven independent cross-sectional population surveys repeated every five years between 1982 and 2012 in Finland. The study protocol included a standardized questionnaire on self-reported asthma, smoking habits and other risk factors, and clinical measurements at the study site.

Population-based analysis of pathological correlates of dementia in the oldest old.

Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze brain pathologies which cause dementia in the oldest old population.

Methods: All 601 persons aged ≥85 years living in the city of Vantaa (Finland), on April 1st, 1991 formed the study population of the Vantaa85 +  study, 300 of whom were autopsied during follow-up (79.5% females, mean age-at-death 92 ± 3.

Chronic bronchitis in relation to hospitalization and mortality over three decades.

Background: The study examines the predictive value of chronic bronchitis for all cause and cause-specific hospitalizations and for mortality during the last three decades.

Methods: The study population consists of altogether 47 896 men and women aged 25-74 years who participated in the National FINRISK Study between 1982 and 2007. The study protocol included a standardized questionnaire on the symptoms of chronic bronchitis, smoking habits and other risk factors and clinical measurements at the study site.

Mental disorders and harmful substance use in children of substance abusing parents: A longitudinal register-based study on a complete birth cohort born in 1991.

Introduction And Aims: Adverse childhood experiences and their accumulation over childhood have negative outcomes to children, yet earlier findings on the independent effect of parental substance abuse seem inconsistent. Our aims were to examine: (i) whether parental substance abuse is associated with children's mental disorders in mid-childhood (7-12 years) and mental disorders and own substance use in adolescence (13-17 years); and (ii) whether children are affected differently by a mother or father's substance abuse.

Design And Methods: A register-based longitudinal data on a complete birth cohort of children born in Finland in 1991 (n = 65 117) and their biological parents.

Causes of death and life span in Finnish gelsolin amyloidosis.

Background: Finnish type of hereditary gelsolin amyloidosis (AGel amyloidosis) is an autosomal dominant disorder. Until recently, there has only been little knowledge of fatal complications of the disease and its possible impact on the patients' life span.

Methods: We identified 272 deceased patients based on patient interviews and genealogical data.

Twenty-five year trends in prevalence of chronic bronchitis and the trends in relation to smoking.

Introduction: The present study examines how the trends in the prevalence of chronic bronchitis during the last three decades associate with changes in smoking habits during the same period.

Methods: Altogether 47 896 subjects aged 25-74 years were examined in six independent cross-sectional population surveys repeated every five years between 1982 and 2007 in Finland. The presence of chronic bronchitis, smoking habits and other risk factors were measured by standard questionnaires.

alpha-Synuclein pathology in the spinal cord autonomic nuclei associates with alpha-synuclein pathology in the brain: a population-based Vantaa 85+ study.

In most subjects with Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies, alpha-synuclein (alphaS) immunoreactive pathology is found not only in the brain but also in the autonomic nuclei of the spinal cord. However, neither has the temporal course of alphaS pathology in the spinal cord in relation to the brain progression been established, nor has the extent of alphaS pathology in the spinal cord been analyzed in population-based studies. Using immunohistochemistry, the frequency and distribution of alphaS pathology were assessed semiquantitatively in the brains and spinal cord nuclei of 304 subjects who were aged at least 85 in the population-based Vantaa 85+ study.

Neuropathologic findings of dementia with lewy bodies (DLB) in a population-based Vantaa 85+ study.

The consortium on dementia with Lewy bodies has established consensus guidelines for the neuropathologic diagnosis of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) including the likelihood that the neuropathologic findings associate with the clinical syndrome. Nevertheless, clinico-pathological correlations remain controversial. We applied the consensus guidelines for determining Lewy-related pathology (LRP) and evaluated the clinical presentation in the prospective, population-based Vantaa 85+ study consisting of individuals at least 85 years of age.

Apolipoprotein E (APOE) and lipoprotein lipase (LPL) gene variants and carotid atherosclerotic lesions in the oldest old: a population-based autopsy study.

We investigated the association between histologically defined atherosclerotic lesions in the carotid arteries and the genetic variants of APOE and LPL in a population-based sample of Finns aged 85 or over. Post-mortem analysis of carotid arteries was performed in 240 subjects. Atherosclerotic lesions were categorized according to the modified American Heart Association criteria, and classified into four different categories: pathological intimal thickening (PIT), fibrous cap atheromas (FCA), calcified lesions (CL), and atherosclerotic burden (AB) (a combination of the other three categories).

Widespread unilateral pain associated with herpes simplex virus infections.

Unlabelled: We describe a patient group with unexplained widespread pain on one side of the body and pain exacerbations during active labial or genital herpes and during herpetic central nervous system infections. The patients had no visible lesion of the central nervous system on magnetic resonance imaging or abnormality in electrophysiological studies. To understand the nature of the pain and its possible relation to herpes simplex virus (HSV) infections, a clinical neurological examination was performed and quantitative sensory testing and skin biopsies were assessed in 17 patients.

Senile systemic amyloidosis affects 25% of the very aged and associates with genetic variation in alpha2-macroglobulin and tau: a population-based autopsy study.

Background: Senile systemic amyloidosis (SSA) is characterized by deposition of wild-type transthyretin (TTR)-based amyloid in parenchymal organs in elderly individuals. Previously, no population-based studies have been performed on SSA.

Methods: Here we have studied the prevalence and risk factors for SSA in a Finnish autopsied population aged 85 or over, as part of the population-based Vantaa 85+ Autopsy Study (n = 256).

Association of allergy, asthma and IgE sensitisation to adenoidectomy and infections in children.

Objective: To find out whether previous adenoidectomy is associated with asthma, allergic symptoms or allergen-specific IgE antibodies. RECRUITMENT AND METHODS: We recruited 213 paediatric patients admitted for elective tonsillectomy and 155 paediatric controls. Using a structured questionnaire, we recorded their respiratory symptoms, allergies, bronchial asthma and environmental factors.

Thirty-year cumulative incidence of chronic bronchitis and COPD in relation to 30-year pulmonary function and 40-year mortality: a follow-up in middle-aged rural men.

Purpose: To describe the 30-year cumulative incidence of chronic bronchitis and COPD in relation to smoking habits. The effect of chronic bronchitis on pulmonary function and mortality was also examined.

Methods: Middle-aged men belonging to two rural Finnish cohorts of the Seven Countries Study (n = 1,711 in 1959) were followed up for up to 40 years until 2000.

Subtly impaired humoral immunity predisposes to frequently recurring genital herpes simplex virus type 2 infection and herpetic neuralgia.

Background: Immunogenetic factors predisposing to recurrent genital herpes remain poorly characterized.

Methods: In a prospective case-control study, 52 consecutive patients with frequently recurring outbreaks of genital herpes were compared with 80 herpes simplex virus (HSV)-seropositive (types 1 and 2) and 70 HSV-seronegative control subjects. Immunoglobulins (Igs), type-specific anti-HSV-2 IgG and IgG subclass antibodies against glycoprotein G, levels of C3 and C4, and classical pathway hemolytic complement activity were measured, and IgG1 and IgG3 allotyping; C4 immunophenotyping; C4* real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) genotyping; and HLA-A*, B*, and DR* typing were performed.

Incidence of dementia in very elderly individuals: a clinical, neuropathological and molecular genetic study.

Aims: To evaluate the effect of medical record use on figures for the incidence of dementia and the effect of apolipoprotein E (APOE) polymorphism on this incidence and neuropathologically defined Alzheimer's disease (AD) in very elderly individuals.

Methods: Cognitive functions were examined in a cohort of 328 (92% of the very elderly people of a town participated in this study) nondemented Finnish elderly individuals 85 years of age or more in 1991. The examination was repeated in survivors in 1994, 1996, 1999 and 2001.

Chromosome 21 BACE2 haplotype associates with Alzheimer's disease: a two-stage study.

Genetic linkage studies have provided evidence for a late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD) susceptibility locus on chromosome 21q. We have tested, in a two-stage association study, whether allelic or haplotype variation of the beta-amyloid cleaving enzyme-2 (BACE2) locus on chromosome 21q affects the risk of late-onset AD. In stage-1, an unselected population-based sample of Finns aged 85 years or over (n=515) was analysed.

Physical functioning in elderly Europeans: 10 year changes in the north and south: the HALE project.

Objectives: To examine age related changes in physical functioning in elderly men and women.

Design: Prospective, population based study.

Setting: Population of 15 rural and urban centres in 10 European countries.

Delaying decline in pulmonary function with physical activity: a 25-year follow-up.

The importance of physical activity for health is well recognized, but little is known about the influence of physical activity on pulmonary function. We have examined whether physical activity could slow down the decline in pulmonary function among the southwestern rural Finnish cohort of the Seven Countries Study. Physical activity was estimated by kilometers walked, cycled, and skied daily.

Spouse caregivers' perceptions of influence of dementia on marriage.

Objectives: To investigate what kind of changes spouse caregivers of demented patients experience after the onset of dementia (a) in the general atmosphere, happiness, and relations of marriage and (b) in the sexual side of marriage.

Design: Semistructured telephone interviews of spouse caregivers of demented patients.

Setting: Community-living demented patients and their spouse caregivers in eastern Finland.

Neuromuscular pathology in hereditary gelsolin amyloidosis.

Hereditary gelsolin amyloidosis (AGel amyloidosis) is a systemic disorder reported worldwide in kindreds with a G654A or G654T gelsolin gene mutation. The clinically characteristic peripheral nerve involvement has been poorly characterized morphologically, and its pathogenesis remains unknown. We studied peripheral nerve and skeletal muscle biopsy or autopsy specimens of 35 patients with a G654A gelsolin gene mutation.

Externalizing and internalizing problems at school as signs of health-damaging behaviour and incipient marginalization.

This study aimed to investigate whether behavioural or emotional problems in adolescents detected by their teachers are signs of a common psychosocial maladjustment and of the beginning of social marginalization. Altogether, 171 pupils (15 years of age) from the eastern part of Finland participated in the survey. Behavioural and emotional problems and academic achievements were assessed separately by two teachers.

ApoE epsilon3-haplotype modulates Alzheimer beta-amyloid deposition in the brain.

ApoE epsilon4 allele increases the risk of late-onset Alzheimer disease (AD) as well as the amount of beta-amyloid deposition in the brain. Because half of AD patients do not have ApoE epsilon4, it is important to search for other determinants of ApoE that modify AD risk. We tested whether the haplotype background of the most common ApoE allele, epsilon3, influences brain amyloid deposition or the risk of neuropathologically verified AD in a population-based sample of elderly Finns.

Tracking of systolic blood pressure during childhood: a 15-year follow-up population-based family study in eastern Finland.

Objectives: To investigate the tracking of systolic arterial blood pressure (SBP) during childhood.

Design And Setting: All children born during 1981-82 in a rural community of eastern Finland were followed at the ages of 6 months, 7 and 15 years (SBP-6m, SBP-7y, SBP-15y). One hundred and thirty-eight out of 205 children completed the full follow-up period, of which 100 (45 girls) were included in the analysis with complete data.