Publications by authors named "M Blaha"
Background: Cigarette smoking has been associated with incident heart failure (HF). However, the association between cigarette smoking and smoking cessation with HF subtypes has not been well elucidated, particularly among Black people.
Methods And Results: We investigated 4189 (never smoker n=2934, former smoker n=761, current smoker n=464) Black participants (mean age 54 years, 64% women) without a history of HF or coronary heart disease at baseline in the Jackson Heart Study.
Background: Black adults show heightened cardiovascular risk compared with other groups despite comparable or lower coronary artery calcium (CAC) scores, indicating potential cardiovascular risk underestimation by CAC. Abdominal aortic calcification (AAC), preceding CAC, may predict cardiovascular events better in Black adults who are prone to early atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and excess events at low CAC scores.
Methods: We included 2551 participants from the JHS (Jackson Heart Study) visit 2 examination (2005-2008) without cardiovascular disease, followed through 2016.
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a progressive chronic disease causing visual impairment or central vision loss in the elderly. We hypothesized that successful rheopheresis would be associated with positive changes in soluble endoglin (sENG), PSCK9, alpha-2-macroglobulin (A2M), and hs-CRP levels. 31 elderly patients with the dry form of AMD, treated with rheopheresis with a follow-up period of at least 5 years and an average age of 68 ± 4 years, were evaluated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: There is increasing interest in predicting heart failure (HF), a major cause of morbidity and mortality with a significant financial burden. The role of coronary artery calcium (CAC), an accessible and inexpensive test, in predicting long-term HF mortality among asymptomatic adults remains unknown. We aimed to determine whether CAC burden is associated with HF-related mortality in the CAC Consortium.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- The study examines the relationship between polygenic scores for coronary heart disease (CHD) and coronary artery calcium (CAC) in adults aged 75 and older, suggesting that genetic factors may influence arterial aging beyond traditional risk factors.
- Researchers analyzed data from 1,865 participants, finding that higher polygenic CHD risk scores were associated with significantly lower odds of having no CAC and much higher odds of having high CAC levels.
- Each standard deviation increase in the polygenic risk score corresponded to a 78% increase in CAC scores, indicating a strong link between genetic predisposition and arterial health in older adults.