Publications by authors named "Jan Staessen"

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.

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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).

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigated the effects of spironolactone on blood pressure (BP) during exercise in heart failure (HF) patients, finding that it significantly reduced both pre- and post-exercise BP levels over 9 months.
  • While spironolactone showed a small improvement in the number of completed shuttles during exercise tests, there was no significant difference in overall exercise capacity or quality of life (QoL) between the spironolactone group and the control group.
  • The results suggest that while spironolactone can lower BP in patients at increased risk of HF, it does not enhance their ability to exercise or improve their overall well-being.
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Unlabelled: Former Extremely Low Birthweight (ELBW) neonates suffer from adverse renal and cardiovascular outcomes later in life. Less is known about additional perinatal risk factors for these adverse outcomes which we have investigated in this study. We compared renal outcome between ELBW children and controls, to find perinatal risk factors for poorer renal outcome and to unveil associations between kidney function and blood pressure.

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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).

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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.

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Objectives: Hypertension is a common condition worldwide; however, its underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown. This study aimed to identify urinary peptides associated with hypertension to further explore the relevant molecular pathophysiology.

Methods: Peptidome data from 2876 individuals without end-organ damage were retrieved from the Human Urinary Proteome Database, belonging to general population (discovery) or type 2 diabetic (validation) cohorts.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999-2020) to evaluate trends in blood lead levels, their association with blood pressure, and mortality rates in the US.
  • Blood lead levels decreased significantly during this period, with a rise in the percentage of people having low lead levels; however, total mortality was not linked to blood lead levels.
  • The research concluded that stricter environmental policies have reduced lead exposure's impact on overall mortality, but there is still a slight association with cardiovascular deaths, which is not linked through blood pressure.
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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).

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  • Immunosuppressive treatment for heart transplant patients can lead to osteoporosis, and researchers aimed to create a urinary proteomic profile (UPP) biomarker to identify this condition using peptide fragments from bone extracellular matrix.* -
  • The study involved analyzing urine samples from a cohort of heart transplant patients, where an 18-peptide marker called OSTEO18 was developed, showing promising results in differentiating between patients with and without osteoporosis through statistical methods.* -
  • Validation of OSTEO18 indicated it is a reliable biomarker with good sensitivity and specificity, enhancing osteoporosis risk assessment in heart transplant recipients, and it is in the process of being certified for clinical use.*
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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.

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Background: It remains unclear whether systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) pressure and BP response after six-minute walk test (6MWT) are associated with adverse outcomes in patients with acute heart failure (AHF).

Methods: We investigated these associations in 98 AHF patients (24.5% women; mean age, 70.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the clinical and proteomic profiles of patients at risk for heart failure, distinguishing between those with and without coronary artery disease (CAD) or prior myocardial infarction (MI).
  • It involved 527 participants and identified distinct protein markers associated with CAD and MI, revealing higher levels of certain proteins like MMP-7 in those with CAD or MI.
  • The use of spironolactone in participants led to changes in these protein levels over 9 months, suggesting that treatment may influence specific biomarkers related to heart failure risk.
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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.

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Importance: There are ongoing concerns about the benefits of intensive vs standard blood pressure (BP) treatment among adults with orthostatic hypotension or standing hypotension.

Objective: To determine the effect of a lower BP treatment goal or active therapy vs a standard BP treatment goal or placebo on cardiovascular disease (CVD) or all-cause mortality in strata of baseline orthostatic hypotension or baseline standing hypotension.

Data Sources: Individual participant data meta-analysis based on a systematic review of MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CENTRAL databases through May 13, 2022.

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(1) Background: Kidney and cardiovascular diseases are responsible for a large fraction of population morbidity and mortality. Early, targeted, personalized intervention represents the ideal approach to cope with this challenge. Proteomic/peptidomic changes are largely responsible for the onset and progression of these diseases and should hold information about the optimal means of treatment and prevention.

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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.

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