Inflammation in the Prediction of Type 2 Diabetes and Hypertension in Healthy Adults.

Background: While inflammation is associated with obesity and insulin resistance, their inter-relationships in the development of type 2 diabetes or hypertension are not clear.

Aim Of The Study: To evaluate inflammatory markers in prediction of type 2 diabetes and hypertension.

Methods: The study population of this retrospective cohort study consisted of individuals who participated in a comprehensive health screening program with measurement of white blood cell count and C-reactive protein from 2002-2010 (N = 96,606) in nondiabetic and normotensive Koreans.

Association between serum uric acid and cardiovascular mortality and all-cause mortality: a cohort study.

Objective: Previous studies have reported the association among serum uric acid (SUA) levels and cardiovascular and all-cause mortality; however, the results have been inconsistent. The aim of this study was to investigate whether SUA is independently associated with cardiovascular and all-cause mortality in relatively healthy Korean adults.

Methods: A total of 396 951 individuals were enrolled for the study between 2002 and 2012.

Absence of association between gallstone and coronary artery calcification.

Background And Aims: Gallstone has been suggested to be associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Coronary artery calcification (CAC) is an excellent value to predict future CVD. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between gallstone and CAC.

C-reactive protein and risk of atrial fibrillation in East Asians.

Aims: Inflammation has been suggested to play a role in the pathogenesis of atrial fibrillation (AF). It is uncertain whether C-reactive protein, a robust inflammatory marker, is associated with AF incidence in Asians with lower levels of C-reactive protein compared with western population. This study aimed to determine the association between C-reactive protein and risk of AF in a large population of Koreans.

High-sensitivity C-reactive protein is associated with the presence of coronary artery calcium in subjects with normal blood pressure but not in subjects with hypertension.

Background And Aims: An association has been described between high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in some studies but not in others. This finding may be explained by a differential impact of inflammation according to the absence or presence of certain co-existing risk factors. Because hypertension may be an effect modifier of inflammation on CVD, our aim was to investigate the relationship between hs-CRP and pre-clinical atherosclerosis in subjects with normal blood pressure and hypertension.

Metabolically healthy obese subjects are at risk of fatty liver but not of pre-clinical atherosclerosis.

Backgrounds And Aims: Whether obesity increases risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and fatty liver because of the co-existence of other risk factors is uncertain. We investigated odds ratios (ORs) for: a) a measure of pre-clinical atherosclerosis and b) fatty liver, in metabolically healthy obese (MHO) subjects, metabolically abnormal obese (MAO) subjects and metabolically abnormal non obese subjects (MANO), using a metabolically healthy non obese (MHNO) group as the reference.

Methods And Results: 14,384 South Koreans from an occupational cohort underwent cardiac computed tomography (CT) estimation of CAC score, liver ultrasound determination of fatty liver, and measurement of cardiovascular risk factors.

Recurrent mesalazine-induced myopericarditis in a patient with ulcerative colitis.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is considered as a dysregulated immune mediated disease. Pericarditis in IBD is a very rare disease both as an extra-intestinal manifestation of IBD and an adverse reaction of therapeutic drug for IBD such as mesalazine or sulfasalazine. A 26-year-old IBD male patient who had been taking mesalazine regularly for about 1 month was referred to our hospital because of fever, chest discomfort, and abnormal electrocardiographic findings.