Prediction of individualized lifetime benefit from cholesterol lowering, blood pressure lowering, antithrombotic therapy, and smoking cessation in apparently healthy people.

Aims: The benefit an individual can expect from preventive therapy varies based on risk-factor burden, competing risks, and treatment duration. We developed and validated the LIFEtime-perspective CardioVascular Disease (LIFE-CVD) model for the estimation of individual-level 10 years and lifetime treatment-effects of cholesterol lowering, blood pressure lowering, antithrombotic therapy, and smoking cessation in apparently healthy people.

Methods And Results: Model development was conducted in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (n = 6715) using clinical predictors.

Prolongation of the QTc interval in HIV-infected individuals compared to the general population.

Objectives: Prolonged QT interval is associated with arrhythmias and sudden death. An increased prevalence of QT interval prolongation in human immunodeficiency virus-infected (HIV) subjects was previously described. The impact of different medications and HIV infection itself on the QT interval is rarely investigated in large HIV+ cohorts.

Comparison of coronary artery calcification, carotid intima-media thickness and ankle-brachial index for predicting 10-year incident cardiovascular events in the general population.

Aims: To compare the predictive value of coronary artery calcification (CAC), carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) and ankle-brachial index (ABI) in a primary prevention cohort depending on risk factor profile to determine which of the three markers improves cardiovascular (CV) risk discrimination best in which risk group.

Methods And Results: We quantified CAC, CIMT, and ABI in 3108 subjects (mean age 59.2 ± 7.

Prevalence and Prognostic Implications of Coronary Artery Calcification in Low-Risk Women: A Meta-analysis.

Importance: The role of coronary artery calcium (CAC) testing for guiding preventive strategies among women at low cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk based on the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association CVD prevention guidelines is unclear.

Objective: To assess the potential utility of CAC testing for CVD risk estimation and stratification among low-risk women.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Women with 10-year atherosclerotic CVD (ASCVD) risk lower than 7.

Linkage and Association Analysis Identifies TRAF1 Influencing Common Carotid Intima-Media Thickness.

Background And Purpose: Carotid intima-media thickness is a marker for subclinical atherosclerosis that predicts subsequent clinical cardiovascular events. The aim of this study was to identify chromosomal loci with linkage or association to common carotid intima-media thickness.

Methods: Nuclear families were recruited using the single parental proband sib-pair design.

Recalibration of the ACC/AHA Risk Score in Two Population-Based German Cohorts.

Background: The 2013 ACC/AHA guidelines introduced an algorithm for risk assessment of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) within 10 years. In Germany, risk assessment with the ESC SCORE is limited to cardiovascular mortality. Applicability of the novel ACC/AHA risk score to the German population has not yet been assessed.

Update of the effect estimates for common variants associated with carotid intima media thickness within four independent samples: The Bonn IMT Family Study, the Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study, the SAPHIR Study and the Bruneck Study.

Carotid intima media thickness (cIMT) is a marker for subclinical atherosclerosis. The most recent genome-wide association meta-analysis (GWAMA) from the CHARGE consortium identified four genomic regions showing either significant (ZHX2, APOC1, PINX1) or suggestive evidence (SLC17A4) for an association. Here we assess these four cIMT loci in a pooled analysis of four independent studies including 5446 individuals by providing updated unbiased effect estimates of the cIMT association signals.

Are transversal MR images sufficient to distinguish persons with mild cognitive impairment from healthy controls?

Rationale And Objectives: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is associated with an increased risk of developing dementia. This study aims to determine whether current standard magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is providing markers that can distinguish between subjects with amnestic MCI (aMCI), nonamnestic MCI (naMCI), and healthy controls (HCs).

Materials And Methods: A subset of 126 MCI subjects and 126 age-, gender-, and education-appropriate HCs (mean age, 70.

Use of aspirin combinations with caffeine and increasing headache frequency: a prospective population-based study.

Combinations of analgesics with caffeine have been discussed as bearing a risk for headache chronicity. We investigated whether aspirin with caffeine (ASA+) increases headache frequency compared with aspirin alone in migraine, tension-type headache (TTH), and migraine + TTH (MigTTH). The population-based German Headache Consortium Study, which included participants aged 18 to 65 years, collected information about headache and analgesics at baseline (2003-2007, t0, response rate: 55.

Association of computed tomography-derived left ventricular size with major cardiovascular events in the general population: the Heinz Nixdorf recall study.

Objective: To investigate the relationship between LV size as determined by non-contrast enhanced cardiac CT with incident cardiovascular disease in the general population free of clinical cardiovascular disease.

Methods: LV axial area was quantified from non-contrast CT in axial, end-diastolic images at a mid-ventricular slice in participants from the population-based Heinz Nixdorf recall study, free of cardiovascular disease (n=3926, 59±8years, 53%female). LV size index (LVI) was defined as the quotient of LV area and body surface area.

B-type natriuretic peptide for incident atrial fibrillation-The Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study.

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Thus, identifying subjects with unknown AF or at higher risk for future AF in the general population is of importance. B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) is linked with silent cardiac diseases.

Quantitative molecular detection of putative periodontal pathogens in clinically healthy and periodontally diseased subjects.

Periodontitis is a multi-microbial oral infection with high prevalence among adults. Putative oral pathogens are commonly found in periodontally diseased individuals. However, these organisms can be also detected in the oral cavity of healthy subjects.

Association of computed tomography-derived left atrial size with major cardiovascular events in the general population: the Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study.

Background: Echocardiography based data suggests that left atrial (LA) size is associated with cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Once non-contrast cardiac CT is performed for prevention purposes, information on the LA is readily available. We aimed to determine whether LA area from non-contrast cardiac CT is associated with incident major cardiovascular (CV) events, independent of CV risk factors and coronary artery calcium (CAC), based on a general population cohort.

Cost-effectiveness of preoperative SPECT/CT combined with lymphoscintigraphy vs. lymphoscintigraphy for sentinel lymph node excision in patients with cutaneous malignant melanoma.

Purpose: Malignant melanoma has become a major growing interdisciplinary problem in public health worldwide. Sentinel lymph node excision (SLNE) in conjunction with preoperative SPECT/CT is considered the most sensitive and specific staging test for the detection of micrometastatic melanoma in regional lymph nodes. Among patients with clinically lymph node-negative melanoma, the use of SPECT/CT-aided SLNE compared with SLNE alone has been found to be associated with a higher frequency of metastatic involvement and a higher rate of disease-free survival.

Synergistic Effects of Nonthermal Plasma and Disinfecting Agents against Dental Biofilms In Vitro.

Aim. Dental biofilms play a major role in the pathogenesis of many dental diseases. In this study, we evaluated the synergistic effect of atmospheric pressure plasma and different agents in dentistry on the reduction of biofilms.

B-type natriuretic peptide: distribution in the general population and the association with major cardiovascular and coronary events--the Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study.

Background: A B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) threshold of 100 pg/ml is used in practice for identification of heart failure, but data about the "normal" distribution of BNP in a large population in primary prevention are rare. We aimed to characterize the BNP distribution in a healthy subset of a population-based cohort and to evaluate the association of elevated BNP levels with major events.

Methods: In a first step, we determined gender-specific distribution and 90th percentiles of BNP in participants who were at baseline free from known determinants of increased BNP, i.

Left atrial size quantification using non-contrast-enhanced cardiac computed tomography - association with cardiovascular risk factors and gender-specific distribution in the general population: the Heinz Nixdorf Recall study.

Background: Left atrial (LA) size is associated with cardiovascular mortality and morbidity. Once cardiac computed tomography (CT) is performed, information on LA size is readily available without additional contrast media or radiation exposure.

Purpose: To determine the association of CT-derived LA area and body surface area-adjusted (BSA) LA index with cardiovascular risk factors and describe age- and gender-specific normative values in a general population cohort.