Egg consumption, overall diet quality, and risk of type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease: A pooling project of US prospective cohorts.

Background And Aims: Data on the relation of egg consumption with risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and coronary heart disease (CHD) are limited and inconsistent. Few studies have controlled for overall dietary patterns in egg-T2D or egg-CHD analyses, and it is unclear whether any observed elevated risks of T2D and CHD with frequent egg consumption is real or due to confounding by dietary habits. We tested the hypothesis that frequent egg consumption is associated with a higher risk of T2D and CHD risk after adjustment for overall dietary patterns among adults.

Association between postmenopausal vulvovaginal discomfort, vaginal microbiota, and mucosal inflammation.

Background: Half of all postmenopausal women report symptoms of vulvar, vaginal, or urinary discomfort with substantial impact on sexual function and quality of life; underlying mechanisms leading to symptoms are poorly understood.

Objective: To examine the possibility that the vaginal microbiota and/or mucosal immune response contributes to the severity of bothersome vaginal symptoms, we conducted a substudy of samples from a randomized trial of vaginal treatment for genitourinary syndrome of menopause to compare these features between women whose symptoms improved and women whose symptoms did not improve.

Study Design: This is a secondary analysis of samples collected in a 12-week randomized trial of treatment with vaginal estradiol or moisturizer vs placebo for moderate-severe postmenopausal symptoms of vaginal discomfort.

Bacterial Communities Associated With Abnormal Nugent Score in Postmenopausal Versus Premenopausal Women.

The Nugent score is the reference standard for bacterial vaginosis (BV) diagnosis but has not been validated in postmenopausal women. We compared relative abundances from 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing of vaginal microbiota with Nugent score in cohorts of premenopausal (n = 220) and postmenopausal (n = 144) women. In premenopausal women, 33 taxa were significantly correlated with Nugent score, including the classic BV-associated taxa Gardnerella, Atopobium, Sneathia, Megasphaera, and Prevotella.

Ultrasound carotid plaque features, cardiovascular disease risk factors and events: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.

Background And Aims: It is not known if ultrasound carotid plaque features are associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors or if they predict future CVD events.

Methods: We measured total carotid plaque area (TPA) and grayscale plaque features (grayscale median, black areas, and discrete white areas) by B-mode carotid ultrasound among 2205 participants who participated in the first (baseline) visit of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. Multivariable linear regression was used to examine relationships between ultrasound plaque features and CVD risk factors at baseline.