Evaluating the causal relevance of diverse risk markers: horizontal systematic review.

Objectives: To develop a new methodology to systematically compare evidence across diverse risk markers for coronary heart disease and to compare this evidence with guideline recommendations.

Design: "Horizontal" systematic review incorporating different sources of evidence.

Data Sources: Electronic search of Medline and hand search of guidelines.

Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain in diabetes: the Cardiovascular Determinants of Dementia (CASCADE) Study.

Diabetic patients are at increased risk for stroke, but little is known about the presence of other brain lesions. We studied the association of magnetic resonance imaging-detected brain lesions to diabetes in 1,252 individuals aged 65-75 years who were randomly selected from eight European population registries or defined working populations. All scans were centrally read for brain abnormalities, including infarcts, white matter lesions, and atrophy.

The importance of plasma apolipoprotein E concentration in addition to its common polymorphism on inter-individual variation in lipid levels: results from Apo Europe.

Interindividual variation in the concentration of plasma lipids which are associated with coronary artery disease (CAD) risk is determined by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. This study investigates the effects of apoE genotype and plasma concentration on cholesterol and triglycerides (TG) levels in subjects from five countries: Finland, France, Northern Ireland, Portugal, and Spain. Age and sex significantly influenced serum cholesterol, TG and apoE concentrations.