Leukotriene A4 Hydrolase and Hepatocyte Growth Factor Are Risk Factors of Sudden Cardiac Death Due to First-Ever Myocardial Infarction.

Patients at a high risk for sudden cardiac death (SCD) without previous history of cardiovascular disease remain a challenge to identify. Atherosclerosis and prothrombotic states involve inflammation and non-cardiac tissue damage that may play active roles in SCD development. Therefore, we hypothesized that circulating proteins implicated in inflammation and tissue damage are linked to the future risk of SCD.

Lysophospholipids as Predictive Markers of ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) and Non-ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction (NSTEMI).

The present study explored patterns of circulating metabolites and proteins that can predict future risk for ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI). We conducted a prospective nested case-control study in northern Sweden in individuals who developed STEMI (N = 50) and NSTEMI (N = 50) within 5 years and individually matched controls (N = 100). Fasted plasma samples were subjected to multiplatform mass spectrometry-based metabolomics and multiplex protein analyses.

Swedish snus use is associated with mortality: a pooled analysis of eight prospective studies.

Background: The health consequences of the use of Swedish snus, including its relationship with mortality, have not been fully established. We investigated the relationship between snus use and all-cause and cause-specific mortality (death due to cardiovascular diseases, cancer diseases and all other reasons, respectively) in a nationwide collaborative pooling project.

Methods: We followed 169 103 never-smoking men from eight Swedish cohort studies, recruited in 1978-2010.

Von Willebrand factor, ABO blood group, and risk of first-ever intracerebral hemorrhage: A prospective nested case-control study.

Background And Purpose: Low levels of von Willebrand factor (VWF) were associated with intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) in a previous study. Persons with blood group O have lower VWF levels than other ABO blood groups. This study aimed to investigate the association between VWF and the risk of ICH in adults, as well as the association between ABO blood group and risk of ICH.

High frequency of intermediary alleles in the HTT gene in Northern Sweden - The Swedish Huntingtin Alleles and Phenotype (SHAPE) study.

Trinucleotide (CAG) repeat expansions longer than 39 in the huntingtin (HTT) gene cause Huntington's disease (HD). The frequency of intermediate alleles (IA) with a length of 27-35 in the general population is not fully known, but studied in specific materials connected to the incidence of HD. The Swedish Huntingtin Alleles and Phenotype (SHAPE) study aims to assess the frequency of trinucleotide repeat expansions in the HTT gene in north Sweden.

Phosphatidylethanol Levels, As a Marker of Alcohol Consumption, Are Associated With Risk of Intracerebral Hemorrhage.

Background And Purpose: Previous observational studies have shown a moderately increased risk of intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) with high self-reported alcohol consumption. However, self-reported data tend to underestimate alcohol consumption. Phosphatidylethanol is a specific biomarker reflecting alcohol intake during the last month and correlates with the amount of alcohol consumed.

GDF-15 is associated with sudden cardiac death due to incident myocardial infarction.

Aims: Preventing sudden cardiac death (SCD) due to acute myocardial infarction (MI) in previously healthy patients is challenging. Proteomic analysis may lead to an understanding of biological mechanisms and provide predictive biomarkers.

Methods: In this prospective, nested case-control study from northern Sweden, 87 candidate cardiovascular protein biomarkers were studied in 244 individuals who later died within 24 h from an incident MI and 244 referents without MI and individually matched for age, sex and date of health examination and alive at the date of event in the index person.

Leptin levels are not affected by enalapril treatment after an uncomplicated myocardial infarction, but associate strongly with changes in fibrinolytic variables in men.

Leptin, an adipocyte-derived hormone, is involved in the regulation of body weight and is associated with obesity-related complications, notably cardiovascular disease (CVD). A putative link between obesity and CVD could be induction of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) synthesis by leptin. In this study, we hypothesized that the beneficial effect of the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACE) enalapril on PAI-1 levels is mediated by effects on leptin levels.

Weight gain and blood pressure.

Objective: Although the causality of the obesity--hypertension association is established, the potential for prevention is not. We hypothesized that weight gain between early adulthood and mid-life is associated with higher mid-life blood pressure.

Methods: We investigated the hypothesis using a large contemporaneous population-based mid-life cohort of men and women aged 50-64 years.

Dairy Products and Cancer Risk in a Northern Sweden Population.

The role of dairy products in cancer is unclear. We assessed consumption of fermented milk, non-fermented milk, cheese, and butter, estimated from semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaires, in relation to prospective risk of breast, prostate, colorectal, smoking-, and obesity-related cancers in 101,235 subjects, including 12,552 cancer cases, in the population-based Northern Sweden Health and Disease Study. Most analyses ( = 20) rendered null results.

Publisher Correction: Protein-altering variants associated with body mass index implicate pathways that control energy intake and expenditure in obesity.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Biomarkers of Dietary Omega-6 Fatty Acids and Incident Cardiovascular Disease and Mortality.

Background: Global dietary recommendations for and cardiovascular effects of linoleic acid, the major dietary omega-6 fatty acid, and its major metabolite, arachidonic acid, remain controversial. To address this uncertainty and inform international recommendations, we evaluated how in vivo circulating and tissue levels of linoleic acid (LA) and arachidonic acid (AA) relate to incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) across multiple international studies.

Methods: We performed harmonized, de novo, individual-level analyses in a global consortium of 30 prospective observational studies from 13 countries.

Dairy Product Intake and Cardiometabolic Diseases in Northern Sweden: A 33-Year Prospective Cohort Study.

Dairy products are important constituents of most diets, and their association with adverse health outcomes remains a focus. We characterized dairy food intake and examined associations with the incidence of type 2 diabetes (T2D), myocardial infarction (MI) or stroke among 108,065 Swedish men and women. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs were estimated using the multivariable Cox proportional hazards models in a population characterized by high milk tolerance.

Meta-analysis of up to 622,409 individuals identifies 40 novel smoking behaviour associated genetic loci.

Smoking is a major heritable and modifiable risk factor for many diseases, including cancer, common respiratory disorders and cardiovascular diseases. Fourteen genetic loci have previously been associated with smoking behaviour-related traits. We tested up to 235,116 single nucleotide variants (SNVs) on the exome-array for association with smoking initiation, cigarettes per day, pack-years, and smoking cessation in a fixed effects meta-analysis of up to 61 studies (up to 346,813 participants).

The association between circulating endostatin levels and incident myocardial infarction.

Objective: Increased levels of circulating endostatin have been observed in patients with prevalent ischemic heart disease. However, the association between circulating endostatin, and incident myocardial infarction (MI) is less studied. Our main aim was to study the association between circulating endostatin and incident MI in the community adjusted for established cardiovascular risk factors in men and women.

Dairy intake revisited - associations between dairy intake and lifestyle related cardio-metabolic risk factors in a high milk consuming population.

Background: The association between milk and dairy intake and the incidence of cardiometabolic diseases, cancer and mortality has been evaluated in many studies, but these studies have had conflicting results with no clear conclusion on causal or confounding associations. The present study aims to further address this association by cross-sectional and longitudinal evaluation of the associations between exposure to various types of dairy products and metabolic risk markers among inhabitants in northern Sweden while taking other lifestyle factors into account.

Methods: Respondents in the Västerbotten Intervention Programme with complete and plausible diet data between 1991 and 2016 were included, yielding 124,934 observations from 90,512 unique subjects.

D-Dimer Is Associated With First-Ever Intracerebral Hemorrhage.

Background and Purpose- Hypertension is the most important risk factor for intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), but further characterization is needed for groups at high risk of ICH. One way to predict the risk of developing a disease is with plasma biomarkers. This study aimed to investigate the association between the biomarker, D-dimer, and ICH risk.

Positive predictive value and misclassification of diagnosis of pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis in Swedish patient registries.

Purpose: To validate diagnoses of pulmonary embolism (PE) and deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in administrative registries. We also estimated the frequency of misclassified PE and DVT events.

Patients And Methods: A registry search for ICD codes representing PE and DVT was performed between 1985 and 2014 in a large population-based cohort in northern Sweden.

A comprehensive evaluation of the genetic architecture of sudden cardiac arrest.

Aims: Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) accounts for 10% of adult mortality in Western populations. We aim to identify potential loci associated with SCA and to identify risk factors causally associated with SCA.

Methods And Results: We carried out a large genome-wide association study (GWAS) for SCA (n = 3939 cases, 25 989 non-cases) to examine common variation genome-wide and in candidate arrhythmia genes.

Alcohol intake in relation to non-fatal and fatal coronary heart disease and stroke: EPIC-CVD case-cohort study.

Objective: To investigate the association between alcohol consumption (at baseline and over lifetime) and non-fatal and fatal coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke.

Design: Multicentre case-cohort study.

Setting: A study of cardiovascular disease (CVD) determinants within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and nutrition cohort (EPIC-CVD) from eight European countries.

Fasting plasma glucose, oral glucose tolerance test, and the risk of first-time venous thromboembolism. A report from the VEINS cohort study.

Introduction: It remains unclear whether high plasma glucose levels are associated with venous thromboembolism (VTE). This study investigated the association between fasting plasma glucose (FPG), oral glucose tolerance test (two-hour post-load plasma glucose (2HPG)), diabetes, and VTE.

Materials And Methods: The population-based, prospective Venous thromboEmbolism In Northern Sweden (VEINS) cohort study included 108,025 residents of Västerbotten County in northern Sweden.

Publisher Correction: Protein-altering variants associated with body mass index implicate pathways that control energy intake and expenditure in obesity.

In the version of this article originally published, one of the two authors with the name Wei Zhao was omitted from the author list and the affiliations for both authors were assigned to the single Wei Zhao in the author list. In addition, the ORCID for Wei Zhao (Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA) was incorrectly assigned to author Wei Zhou. The errors have been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.

Publisher Correction: Protein-altering variants associated with body mass index implicate pathways that control energy intake and expenditure in obesity.

In the published version of this paper, the name of author Emanuele Di Angelantonio was misspelled. This error has now been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.

Levels of soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor 1 and 2, gender, and risk of myocardial infarction in Northern Sweden.

Background And Aims: Soluble receptors for tumor necrosis factor alpha (sTNFR1 and sTNFR2) have been associated with cardiovascular diseases, and some evidence points towards a difference in associated risk between men and women. We aimed to study the association between sTNFR1 and sTNFR2 and incident myocardial infarctions (MI) and to explore the influence of established cardiovascular risk factors in men and women.

Methods: We conducted a nested case control study in three large Swedish cohorts, including 533 myocardial infarction cases, and 1003 age-, sex- and cohort-matched controls.

Protein-altering variants associated with body mass index implicate pathways that control energy intake and expenditure in obesity.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified >250 loci for body mass index (BMI), implicating pathways related to neuronal biology. Most GWAS loci represent clusters of common, noncoding variants from which pinpointing causal genes remains challenging. Here we combined data from 718,734 individuals to discover rare and low-frequency (minor allele frequency (MAF) < 5%) coding variants associated with BMI.