The Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) Medical Records Abstraction Project: A Resource for Research on Biological, Psychosocial and Behavioral Factors on the Aging Brain and Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias.

Background: Adult Changes in Thought (ACT), a prospective cohort study, enrolls older adult members of Kaiser Permanente Washington. We describe an ambitious project to abstract medical records facilitating epidemiological investigation.

Methods: Abstracted data include medications; laboratory results; women's health; blood pressure; physical injuries; cardiovascular, neurological, psychiatric and other medical conditions.

Minimizing unnecessary proBNP blood tests: an evaluation of a pop-up form implementation in general practice.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of a compulsory pop-up form on the ordering pattern of proBNP blood tests by general practitioners in the Capital Region of Denmark.

Design: A follow-up study comparing the average number of proBNP tests ordered before and after the implementation of an intervention.

Setting And Subjects: From 2016 to 2021, the average number of proBNP tests increased by over 300%.

The accuracy of predicting maladaptation to new environments with genomic data.

Rapid environmental change poses unprecedented challenges to species persistence. To understand the extent that continued change could have, genomic offset methods have been used to forecast maladaptation of natural populations to future environmental change. However, while their use has become increasingly common, little is known regarding their predictive performance across a wide array of realistic and challenging scenarios.

The genetic architecture of repeated local adaptation to climate in distantly related plants.

Closely related species often use the same genes to adapt to similar environments. However, we know little about why such genes possess increased adaptive potential and whether this is conserved across deeper evolutionary lineages. Adaptation to climate presents a natural laboratory to test these ideas, as even distantly related species must contend with similar stresses.

Child healthcare nurses' experience of communication with 4-year-old children during their visit to the child health care center.

Objective: To illuminate child healthcare nurses' experiences of communication with 4-year-old children during their visit to the child healthcare center.

Design: A qualitative method, using data collected from individual interviews.

Sample: Fifteen semistructured interviews with nurses working in a child healthcare center.

Predisposing Anatomy for Thoracic Outlet Syndrome and Functional Outcomes after Supraclavicular Thoracic Outlet Decompression in Athletes.

Purpose: This study aims to examine predisposing anatomic factors and subsequent post-decompression functional outcomes among high-intensity athletes with thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS).

Materials And Methods: A single-institution retrospective review was performed on a prospective database of patients with TOS from 2018 to 2023 who had undergone operative decompression for TOS. Demographics, TOS characteristics, predisposing anatomy, operative details, and postoperative outcomes were examined.

Genetic architecture of disease resistance and tolerance in Douglas-fir trees.

Understanding the genetic basis of how plants defend against pathogens is important to monitor and maintain resilient tree populations. Swiss needle cast (SNC) and Rhabdocline needle cast (RNC) epidemics are responsible for major damage of forest ecosystems in North America. Here we investigate the genetic architecture of tolerance and resistance to needle cast diseases in Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) caused by two fungal pathogens: SNC caused by Nothophaeocryptopus gaeumannii, and RNC caused by Rhabdocline pseudotsugae.

How useful are genomic data for predicting maladaptation to future climate?

Methods using genomic information to forecast potential population maladaptation to climate change or new environments are becoming increasingly common, yet the lack of model validation poses serious hurdles toward their incorporation into management and policy. Here, we compare the validation of maladaptation estimates derived from two methods-Gradient Forests (GF) and the risk of non-adaptedness (RONA)-using exome capture pool-seq data from 35 to 39 populations across three conifer taxa: two Douglas-fir varieties and jack pine. We evaluate sensitivity of these algorithms to the source of input loci (markers selected from genotype-environment associations [GEA] or those selected at random).

The Copenhagen Primary Care Laboratory (CopLab) Database.

Background: The Copenhagen General Practice Laboratory (CGPL) was founded in 1922 to provide paraclinical analyses to the primary health-care sector in Copenhagen. At the end of 2015, CGPL was closed and the CopLab database was established to make CGPL data available for research.

Methods: We isolated tests performed at the CGPL with clinically relevant test results.

Measurement of plasma total calcium before plasma free ionized calcium - a possibility with affordable pitfalls.

Free ionized calcium (fCa) is considered the gold standard for assessing calcium status in patients, but it is relatively expensive and is associated with several preanalytical and analytical error sources. We investigated the feasibility of using a reflex test that involves first measuring total calcium (tCa) and if out of reference range, then measure fCa, with expectation of reducing the number of fCa measurements. We used data from 1815 unique patients with concurrent measurement of fCa, tCa and albumin adjusted calcium (aCa).

Dysmagnesemia as a predictor of developing diabetic levels of hemoglobin A1c.

The aim of this study was to assess the possible association between P-Mg and subsequent high levels of HbA The study involves data from primary health care patients and data from patients treated in hospitals located in the capital region of Denmark. P-Mg and HbA levels were analyzed from 121,575 patients in the period 2010-2022. Patients were categorized in a diabetic and non-diabetic group.

The development of type 2 diabetes management in people with severe mental illness in the Capital Region of Denmark from 2001 to 2015.

Background: Type 2 diabetes (T2D) treatment has changed markedly within the last decades. We aimed to explore whether people with severe mental illness (SMI) have followed the same changes in T2D treatment as those without SMI, as multiple studies suggest that people with SMI receive suboptimal care for somatic disorders.

Methods: In this registry-based annual cohort study, we explored the T2D treatment from 2001 to 2015 provided in general practices of the Greater Copenhagen area.

Specialized astrocytes mediate glutamatergic gliotransmission in the CNS.

Multimodal astrocyte-neuron communications govern brain circuitry assembly and function. For example, through rapid glutamate release, astrocytes can control excitability, plasticity and synchronous activity of synaptic networks, while also contributing to their dysregulation in neuropsychiatric conditions. For astrocytes to communicate through fast focal glutamate release, they should possess an apparatus for Ca-dependent exocytosis similar to neurons.

Risk of atrial fibrillation in individuals with dysglycemia and diabetes.

Objective: Diabetes is a risk factor for atrial fibrillation (AF), and increases the risk of thromboembolic events in persons with AF. However, the link between the two conditions is not fully elucidated. Few studies have investigated the association of dysglycemia and incident AF.

Diabetes treatment for persons with severe mental illness: A registry-based cohort study to explore medication treatment differences for persons with type 2 diabetes with and without severe mental illness.

It has been argued that persons with severe mental illness (SMI) receive poorer treatment for somatic comorbidities. This study assesses the treatment rates of glucose-lowering and cardiovascular medications among persons with incident type 2 diabetes (T2D) and SMI compared to persons with T2D without SMI. We identified persons ≥30 years old with incident diabetes (HbA1c ≥ 48 mmol/mol and/or glucose ≥ 11.

Impaired dynamics of precapillary sphincters and pericytes at first-order capillaries predict reduced neurovascular function in the aging mouse brain.

The microvascular inflow tract, comprising the penetrating arterioles, precapillary sphincters and first-order capillaries, is the bottleneck for brain blood flow and energy supply. Exactly how aging alters the structure and function of the microvascular inflow tract remains unclear. By in vivo four-dimensional two-photon imaging, we reveal an age-dependent decrease in vaso-responsivity accompanied by a decrease in vessel density close to the arterioles and loss of vascular mural cell processes, although the number of mural cell somas and their alpha smooth muscle actin density were preserved.

Associations between education level, blood-lipid measurements and statin treatment in a Danish primary health care population from 2000 to 2018.

Objective: To examine whether education level influences screening, monitoring, and treatment of hypercholesterolemia.

Design: Epidemiological cohort study.

Setting: Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Copenhagen University Hospital Hvidovre.

PV interneurons evoke astrocytic Ca responses in awake mice, which contributes to neurovascular coupling.

Neurovascular coupling (NVC) modulates cerebral blood flow to match increased metabolic demand during neuronal excitation. Activation of inhibitory interneurons also increase blood flow, but the basis for NVC caused by interneurons is unclear. While astrocyte Ca levels rise with excitatory neural transmission, much less is known with regards to astrocytic sensitivity to inhibitory neurotransmission.

Revascularizations and limb outcomes of hospitalized patients with diabetic peripheral arterial disease in the contemporary era.

Background: Concomitant diabetes mellitus and peripheral artery disease (PAD) is a complex disease process. This retrospective analysis of the National Inpatient Sample sought to understand trends in limb outcomes of this unique and prevalent cohort of patients.

Methods: The National Inpatient Sample was queried between 2003 and 2017 for hospitalizations of patients with both type 2 diabetes mellitus and PAD.

Monocytosis in primary care and risk of haematological malignancies.

Monocytosis (≥0.5 × 10 /L in peripheral blood) is the hallmark of chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia (CMML) but may be present in a spectrum of diseases including other haematological malignancies. In the primary care sector, monocytosis is a relatively common finding, but its predictive value for haematological malignancy is unknown.

Performance of a fully-automated Lumipulse plasma phospho-tau181 assay for Alzheimer's disease.

Background: The recent promise of disease-modifying therapies for Alzheimer's disease (AD) has reinforced the need for accurate biomarkers for early disease detection, diagnosis and treatment monitoring. Advances in the development of novel blood-based biomarkers for AD have revealed that plasma levels of tau phosphorylated at various residues are specific and sensitive to AD dementia. However, the currently available tests have shortcomings in access, throughput, and scalability that limit widespread implementation.