Assessing cardiovascular disease risk and social determinants of health: A comparative analysis of five risk estimation instruments using data from the Eastern Caribbean Health Outcomes Research Network.

Background: Accurate assessment of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk is crucial for effective prevention and resource allocation. However, few CVD risk estimation tools consider social determinants of health (SDoH), despite their known impact on CVD risk. We aimed to estimate 10-year CVD risk in the Eastern Caribbean Health Outcomes Research Network Cohort Study (ECS) across multiple risk estimation instruments and assess the association between SDoH and CVD risk.

Regional-specific trends of PM and O temperature sensitivity in the United States.

Climate change poses direct and indirect threats to public health, including exacerbating air pollution. However, the influence of rising temperature on air quality remains highly uncertain in the United States, particularly under rapid reduction in anthropogenic emissions. Here, we examined the sensitivity of surface-level fine particulate matter (PM) and ozone (O) to summer temperature anomalies in the contiguous US as well as their decadal changes using high-resolution datasets generated by machine learning.

Treatment of Extreme Central Venous Occlusive Disease With Massive Esophageal Bleeding.

Central venous occlusions are common in the population of dialysis patients and develop as a result of arteriovenous access. Whereas these patients most commonly present with edema and varicosities, a rare presentation is esophageal varices. Here we present the case of a young man with life-threatening esophageal hemorrhage as a result of central venous occlusions, successfully treated with an azygos vein to right atrial bypass.

A novel approach for inferring effects on pregnancy loss.

Identifying the determinants of pregnancy loss is a critical public health concern. However, pregnancy loss is often not noticed, and even when it is, it is inconsistently recorded. Thus, past studies have been limited to medically-identified losses or small, highly selected cohorts, which can lead to biased or non-generalizable results.

A Five-Year Prospective, Randomized, Open-Label Study of Standard-Dose Versus Low-Dose Prolonged-Release Tacrolimus With or Without Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitor or Angiotensin II Receptor Blocker Post Kidney Transplantation.

Introduction: Novel approaches to improve long-term outcomes in kidney transplant recipients are required. Here, we present the 5-year data from a multicenter, prospective, Phase 3b trial evaluating treatment outcomes with standard (STD) or low (LOW) dose prolonged-release tacrolimus (TAC) combined with ACEi/ARB or other antihypertensive therapy (OAHT) in Canadian kidney transplant recipients.

Methods: Adult de novo kidney transplant recipients were randomized 2 × 2 to STD or LOW dose TAC and ACEi/ARB or OAHT.

Fine particulate matter and nonaccidental and cause-specific mortality: Do associations vary by exposure assessment method?

Background: There is considerable heterogeneity in fine particulate matter (PM)-mortality associations between studies, potentially due to differences in exposure assessment methods. Our aim was to evaluate associations of PM predicted from different models with nonaccidental and cause-specific mortality.

Methods: We followed 107,906 participants of the Nurses' Health Study cohort from 2001 to 2016.

Clinical Inertia in the Diagnosis and Management of Hypertension Following Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring.

Background: Clinical inertia is common when blood pressure (BP) is high in the office. Little is known about the extent of clinical inertia after ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM).

Methods: This was an electronic health record-based retrospective cohort study of patients with high office BP (≥140/90 mmHg) referred for ABPM at a medical center in New York City between 2016 and 2020.

The effect of body position on cardiovascular, skeletal muscle and ventilatory responses to submaximal cycling.

The completion of exercise in different body positions can impact the function of various components of the oxygen delivery pathway; however, the effect of the haemodynamic conditions induced by a semi-upright body position on the integrative physiological response to exercise is poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of a semi-upright body position on cardiac output (CO), vastus lateralis oxygen saturation ( ), oxygen consumption ( ) and ratings of perceived exertion (Borg RPE) during submaximal cycling. Twenty healthy individuals (22 ± 3 years, 50% female) each completed alternating 5-min bouts of submaximal upright and semi-upright (40° incline) cycling at 50 and 100 W.

Carbon Nanotube-Based Segregated Thermoplastic Nanocomposites Structured via Electromagnetic Melt Processing.

A cutting-edge method that uses electromagnetic (EM) energy for the melt processing of thermoplastic polymer nanocomposites (TPNCs) is reported. The properties and microstructures of TPNCs produced via the proposed EM-processing method and TPNCs via conventional heat processing are contrasted. The EM-processed TPNCs prepared with EM-susceptible carbon nanotubes (CNTs) exhibited a significant enhancement in transport and mechanical properties, outperforming the conventionally processed TPNCs.

"Unjustified Partiality or Impartial Bias? Reckoning with Age and Disability Discrimination in Cancer Clinical Trials".

In this issue, Zakout discusses European Union (EU) legal provisions for inclusion of patients of all types in clinical trials. Shee highlights the unfortunate failure to include adequate numbers of older adults and adults with disabilities in clinical trials of anti-cancer agents. We agree with her argument that this is an ethical issue as well as a scientific and clinical issue.

Estimating the effect of annual PM exposure on mortality in India: a difference-in-differences approach.

Background: In 2019, the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study attributed 0·98 million deaths to ambient air pollution in India based on potentially inappropriate exposure-response functions from countries with low air pollution levels. Instead, using data from India, we investigated long-term exposure to PM and all-cause mortality with a causal inference method.

Methods: We collected national counts of annual mortality from 2009 to 2019 from the Civil Registration System at the district level to calculate annual district-level mortality rate as our main outcome and obtained annual PM concentrations from a high-resolution spatiotemporal model.

Interactive effects between extreme temperatures and PM on cause-specific mortality in thirteen U.S. states.

The extent and robustness of the interaction between exposures to heat and ambient PM is unclear and little is known of the interaction between exposures to cold and ambient PM. Clarifying these interactions, if any, is crucial due to the omnipresence of PM in the atmosphere and increasing scope and frequency of extreme temperature events. To investigate both of these interactions, we merged 6 073 575 individual-level mortality records from thirteen states spanning seventeen years with 1 km daily PM predictions from sophisticated prediction model and 1 km meteorology from Daymet V4.

Haematopoietic gene therapy of non-conditioned patients with Fanconi anaemia-A: results from open-label phase 1/2 (FANCOLEN-1) and long-term clinical trials.

Background: Allogeneic haematopoietic stem-cell transplantation is the standard treatment for bone marrow failure (BMF) in patients with Fanconi anaemia, but transplantation-associated complications such as an increased incidence of subsequent cancer are frequent. The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the infusion of autologous gene-corrected haematopoietic stem cells as an alternative therapy for these patients.

Methods: This was an open-label, investigator-initiated phase 1/2 clinical trial (FANCOLEN-1) and long-term follow-up trial (up to 7 years post-treatment) in Spain.

Preoperative Routine Cold-water Immersion for Lipedema Reduction Surgery.

Routine cold-water immersion (CWI) is typically suggested to reduce inflammation, a hallmark property of lipedema. Lipedema is a connective tissue disorder with a genetic component that presents with a disproportionate distribution of nodules in the extremities. This case report explores the impact of routine CWI on the effectiveness of lipedema reduction surgery (LRS) and manual lipedema extraction, as part of the SMiLE technique (softening, mobilization, liposuction, and extraction).

Supra- and sub-threshold intracellular-like recording of 2D and 3D neuronal networks using nanopillar electrode arrays.

The brain integrates activity across networks of interconnected neurons to generate behavioral outputs. Several physiological and imaging-based approaches have been previously used to monitor responses of individual neurons. While these techniques can identify cellular responses greater than the neuron's action potential threshold, less is known about the events that are smaller than this threshold or are localized to subcellular compartments.

Global, regional, and national mortality burden attributable to air pollution from landscape fires: a health impact assessment study.

Background: Landscape fire-sourced (LFS) air pollution is an increasing public health concern in the context of climate change. However, little is known about the attributable global, regional, and national mortality burden related to LFS air pollution.

Methods: We calculated country-specific population-weighted average daily and annual LFS fine particulate matter (PM) and surface ozone (O) during 2000-19 from a validated dataset.

Reallocations of Time Between Sleep, Sedentary Behavior, and Physical Activity and their Associations with 24-Hour Blood Pressure.

Background: The 24-hour activity cycle (sleep, sedentary behavior, light physical activity, moderate to vigorous physical activity) may have deleterious or beneficial associations with 24-hour blood pressure.

Purpose: Estimate the short-term associated changes in 24H-BP with acutely replacing 30 min/d from one behavior of the 24H-ACT to other behaviors in employed adults.

Methods: Participants (N=659) wore an ambulatory blood pressure monitor and two accelerometers (waist and wrist) to measure 24-hour blood pressure and the 24-hour activity cycle.

Source-Specific PM and Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Mortality.

Background: Fine particulate matter (PM) exposure is adversely linked to atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). However, most studies focused on PM mass rather than its chemical composition and specific sources. Particulate pollution sources can have distinct, cumulative, and potentially synergistic health impacts.