Impact of Lipid Measurements in Youth in Addition to Conventional Clinic-Based Risk Factors on Predicting Preclinical Atherosclerosis in Adulthood: International Childhood Cardiovascular Cohort Consortium.

Background: Data suggest that the prediction of adult cardiovascular disease using a model comprised entirely of adult nonlaboratory-based risk factors is equivalent to an approach that additionally incorporates adult lipid measures. We assessed and compared the utility of a risk model based solely on nonlaboratory risk factors in adolescence versus a lipid model based on nonlaboratory risk factors plus lipids for predicting high-risk carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) in adulthood.

Methods: The study comprised 2893 participants 12 to 18 years of age from 4 longitudinal cohort studies from the United States (Bogalusa Heart Study and the Insulin Study), Australia (Childhood Determinants of Adult Health Study), and Finland (The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study) and followed into adulthood when cIMT was measured (mean follow-up, 23.

Both youth and long-term vitamin D status is associated with risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus in adulthood: a cohort study.

Objectives: To determine whether vitamin D status in childhood and adolescence (herein collectively referred to as youth) and the long-term status from youth to adulthood is associated with risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and impaired fasting glucose (IFG) in adulthood.

Materials And Methods: This was a 31-year follow-up study of 2300 participants aged 3-18 years. Multinomial logistic regression was used to assess the association of both (a) baseline 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) levels and (b) the mean of baseline and the latest follow-up 25OHD levels (continuous variable and quartiles) with incident T2DM and IFG (cut-off = 5.

Sex Differences and Similarities in Atrial Fibrillation Epidemiology, Risk Factors, and Mortality in Community Cohorts: Results From the BiomarCaRE Consortium (Biomarker for Cardiovascular Risk Assessment in Europe).

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common cardiac disease in aging populations with high comorbidity and mortality. Sex differences in AF epidemiology are insufficiently understood.

Methods: In N=79 793 individuals without AF diagnosis at baseline (median age, 49.

Changes in Daily Steps and Body Mass Index and Waist to Height Ratio during Four Year Follow-Up in Adults: Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study.

Over the study years, there was a significant increase in body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-height ratio (WtHR) in middle aged Finnish adults. Data were obtained from 1033 Finnish adults from the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study in 2007 and 2011. Cohort study participants wore an Omron Walking Style One (HJ-152R-E) pedometer for five days and were grouped into those who increased, maintained and decreased their steps between 2007 and 2011.

Childhood Age and Associations Between Childhood Metabolic Syndrome and Adult Risk for Metabolic Syndrome, Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Carotid Intima Media Thickness: The International Childhood Cardiovascular Cohort Consortium.

Background: There is paucity of knowledge concerning the specific age in youth when the associations of metabolic syndrome (MetS) begin to be operative. Thus, we investigated the relation of age to the associations of childhood MetS with adult MetS, type 2 diabetes mellitus and high carotid intima-media thickness.

Methods And Results: Five thousand eight-hundred three participants were analyzed in 4 cohort studies (Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns, Bogalusa Heart Study, Princeton Lipid Research Study, Insulin Study).

Socioeconomic Position Is Associated With Carotid Intima-Media Thickness in Mid-Childhood: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children.

Background: Lower socioeconomic position (SEP) predicts higher cardiovascular risk in adults. Few studies differentiate between neighborhood and family SEP or have repeated measures through childhood, which would inform understanding of potential mechanisms and the timing of interventions. We investigated whether neighborhood and family SEP, measured biennially from ages 0 to 1 year onward, was associated with carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) at ages 11 to 12 years.

Childhood Socioeconomic Status and Arterial Stiffness in Adulthood: The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study.

Increasing evidence supports the importance of socioeconomic factors in the development of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. However, the association of childhood socioeconomic status (SES) with arterial stiffness in adulthood has not been reported. Our aim was to determine whether higher childhood family-level SES is associated with lower arterial stiffness in adulthood.

Epiregulin and EGFR interactions are involved in pain processing.

The EGFR belongs to the well-studied ErbB family of receptor tyrosine kinases. EGFR is activated by numerous endogenous ligands that promote cellular growth, proliferation, and tissue regeneration. In the present study, we have demonstrated a role for EGFR and its natural ligand, epiregulin (EREG), in pain processing.

Gender differences and outcomes in left ventricular assist device support: The European Registry for Patients with Mechanical Circulatory Support.

Background: Despite the increasing use of ventricular assist devices (VADs), gender differences in indications, hemodynamics, and outcome are not well understood. We examined gender differences and gender-specific predictors for perioperative outcome in patients on ventricular support.

Methods: Multicenter data of 966 patients (median age 55 years, 151 women) from the European Registry for Patients with Mechanical Circulatory Support (EUROMACS) were analyzed.

Exposure to Parental Smoking in Childhood is Associated with High C-Reactive Protein in Adulthood: The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study.

Aim: Children exposed to parental smoking are at increased long-term risk of subclinical atherosclerosis in adulthood. However, it has not been quantified if exposure to parental smoking in childhood is associated with adult systemic inflammation. This study aimed to determine if childhood exposure to parental smoking was associated with high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) in adulthood.

Association of Socioeconomic Status in Childhood With Left Ventricular Structure and Diastolic Function in Adulthood: The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study.

Importance: Increased left ventricular (LV) mass and diastolic dysfunction are associated with cardiovascular disease. Prospective data on effects of childhood socioeconomic status (SES) on measures of LV structure and function are lacking.

Objective: To examine whether family SES in childhood was associated with LV mass and diastolic function after adjustment for conventional cardiovascular disease risk factors in childhood and adulthood.

Prediction of Adult Dyslipidemia Using Genetic and Childhood Clinical Risk Factors: The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study.

Background: Dyslipidemia is a major modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease. We examined whether the addition of novel single-nucleotide polymorphisms for blood lipid levels enhances the prediction of adult dyslipidemia in comparison to childhood lipid measures.

Methods And Results: Two thousand four hundred and twenty-two participants of the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study who had participated in 2 surveys held during childhood (in 1980 when aged 3-18 years and in 1986) and at least once in a follow-up study in adulthood (2001, 2007, and 2011) were included.

Bayesian hierarchical piecewise regression models: a tool to detect trajectory divergence between groups in long-term observational studies.

Background: Bayesian hierarchical piecewise regression (BHPR) modeling has not been previously formulated to detect and characterise the mechanism of trajectory divergence between groups of participants that have longitudinal responses with distinct developmental phases. These models are useful when participants in a prospective cohort study are grouped according to a distal dichotomous health outcome. Indeed, a refined understanding of how deleterious risk factor profiles develop across the life-course may help inform early-life interventions.

Long term risk of severe retinopathy in childhood-onset type 1 diabetes: a data linkage study.

Objectives: To determine the relationship between glycaemic control trajectory and the long term risk of severe complications in people with type 1 diabetes mellitus, as well as the effects of paediatric and adult HbA1c levels.

Design, Setting, Participants: Data linkage study of data for adults with childhood-onset type 1 diabetes (diagnosed during 1975-2010) who had transitioned from paediatric diabetes care at the Royal Children's Hospital (Melbourne) to adult diabetes care at the Royal Melbourne Hospital during 1992-2013.

Main Outcome Measures: Severe complications were categorised as severe diabetic retinopathy (SDR), chronic kidney disease, ulceration or amputation, and death.

Tracking of muscular strength and power from youth to young adulthood: Longitudinal findings from the Childhood Determinants of Adult Health Study.

Objectives: Low muscular fitness levels have previously been reported as an independent risk factor for chronic disease outcomes. Muscular fitness tracking, the ability to maintain levels measured at one point in time to another point in time, was assessed from youth to adulthood to provide insight into whether early identification of low muscular fitness in youth is possible.

Design: Prospective longitudinal study.

Carotid artery intima-media thickness and hypertensive heart disease: a short review.

Sustained by its relative ease of assessment, carotid artery intima-media thickness (cIMT) has emerged as an important surrogate marker of target organ damage in hypertensive heart disease over the last three decades. However, the prognostic utility of cIMT in hypertensive heart disease differs depending on its application. This review outlines cIMT and its prognostic utility among patients with hypertensive heart disease.

Positive Psychosocial Factors in Childhood Predicting Lower Risk for Adult Type 2 Diabetes: The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study, 1980-2012.

Introduction: Type 2 diabetes is a public health concern, but psychosocial factors that may protect against the disease are unknown. This study examines whether a positive psychosocial environment in childhood is associated with lower risk for Type 2 diabetes in adulthood or healthier glucose trajectories over the life course, and whether BMI mediates the associations.

Methods: A cohort of 3,596 Finnish children was followed into adulthood over 32 years.

FEV1 and FVC predict all-cause mortality independent of cardiac function - Results from the population-based Gutenberg Health Study.

Background: Lung function has previously been related to increased mortality. Whether pulmonary impairment is associated with an increased mortality independent of cardiac dysfunction remains unclear.

Methods: In 15010 individuals from the general population (age range 35-74years, 51% men) in the Gutenberg Health Study we performed spirometry and transthoracic echocardiography.

Ideal cardiovascular health in childhood-Longitudinal associations with cardiac structure and function: The Special Turku Coronary Risk Factor Intervention Project (STRIP) and the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study (YFS).

Background: Ideal cardiovascular health (CVH), defined by the American Heart Association, is associated with incident cardiovascular disease in adults. However, association of the ideal CVH in childhood with current and future cardiac structure and function has not been studied.

Methods And Results: The sample comprised 827 children participating in the longitudinal Special Turku Coronary Risk Factor Intervention Project (STRIP) and The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study (YFS).

Childhood Socioeconomic Status in Predicting Metabolic Syndrome and Glucose Abnormalities in Adulthood: The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study.

Objective: We prospectively examined whether family socioeconomic status (SES) in childhood is associated with metabolic syndrome (MetS), impaired fasting glucose (IFG), or type 2 diabetes in adulthood.

Research Design And Methods: The sample comprised 2,250 participants from the longitudinal Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study cohort. Participants were 3-18 years old at baseline (mean age 10.

Life-course risk factor levels and coronary artery calcification. The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study.

Background: Risk factors measured in early life have been shown to predict coronary artery calcium (CAC) in adulthood. However, limited data exist on when risk factor profiles of those who develop CAC diverge from those who do not. We investigated the associations of coronary heart disease risk factor trajectories beginning in adolescence and CAC measured at middle-age.

The Association of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus with Cerebral Gray Matter Volume Is Independent of Retinal Vascular Architecture and Retinopathy.

It is uncertain whether small vessel disease underlies the relationship between Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) and brain atrophy. We aimed to study whether retinal vascular architecture, as a proxy for cerebral small vessel disease, may modify or mediate the associations of T2DM with brain volumes. In this cross-sectional study using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans and retinal photographs in 451 people with and without T2DM, we measured brain volumes, geometric measures of retinal vascular architecture, clinical retinopathy, and MRI cerebrovascular lesions.

Childhood Infections, Socioeconomic Status, and Adult Cardiometabolic Risk.

Background And Objectives: Socioeconomic disadvantage throughout the life course is associated with increased risk of cardiometabolic diseases, but traditional risk factors do not fully account for the social gradient. We investigated the interactions between low socioeconomic status (SES) and infection in childhood and adverse cardiometabolic parameters in adulthood.

Methods: Participants from the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study, a cohort well phenotyped for childhood and adulthood cardiometabolic risk factors and socioeconomic parameters, were linked to lifetime hospitalization data from birth onward available from the Finnish National Hospital Registry.

Pediatric Blood Pressure and Adult Preclinical Markers of Cardiovascular Disease.

A high blood pressure level in adults is considered the single most important modifiable risk factor for global disease burden, especially those of cardiovascular (CV) origin such as stroke and ischemic heart disease. Because blood pressure levels have been shown to persist from childhood to adulthood, elevations in pediatric levels have been hypothesized to lead to increased CV burden in adulthood and, as such, might provide a window in the life course where primordial and primary prevention could be focused. In the absence of substantive data directly linking childhood blood pressure levels to overt adult CV disease, this review outlines the available literature that examines the association between pediatric blood pressure and adult preclinical markers of CV disease.

Childhood Muscular Fitness Phenotypes and Adult Metabolic Syndrome.

Purpose: The objective of this study is to determine whether childhood muscular fitness phenotypes (strength, endurance, and power) are independently associated with adult metabolic syndrome (MetS).

Methods: We conducted a longitudinal study including 737 participants who had muscular fitness measures in 1985 when age 9, 12, or 15 yr and attended follow-up in young adulthood 20 yr later when measures of MetS were collected. Childhood measures of muscular fitness included strength (right and left grip, leg, and shoulder extension and flexion), endurance (number of push-ups in 30 s), and power (distance of a standing long jump).