Publications by authors named "Svendsen J"
In the North Sea, offshore oil and gas (O&G) platforms must be totally removed through decommissioning at the end of their productive life. However, the role of O&G platforms in marine ecosystems, especially for fish assemblages, is not well enough defined yet. Here, we document the association between an O&G platform in the North Sea and the fish assemblages along a distance gradient of 1-600 m from the platform.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Screening for atrial fibrillation is rising and may worsen or improve quality of life.
Methods: We assessed quality of life (EQ-5D-5L) data in 6,004 participants with stroke risk factors randomised to usual care (n=4,503) or implantable loop recorder with anticoagulation upon detection of atrial fibrillation (n=1,501). Five domains (mobility, selfcare, usual activities, pain/discomfort, anxiety/depression) each scored from one to five were calculated into individual index scores (worst=-0.
Article Synopsis
- Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a known stroke risk factor, but recent studies highlight that atrial cardiomyopathy could also raise stroke risk even without AF.
- This study assessed genetic factors related to left atrial function and volume in over 380,000 individuals, finding that lower polygenic scores (PGS) for left atrial passive emptying were linked to a higher risk of ischemic stroke.
- The results indicate that impaired left atrial function may independently contribute to stroke risk, suggesting a broader range of factors influencing stroke beyond just AF.
Article Synopsis
- Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is linked to a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases, but its genetic connection to cardiometabolic diseases is unclear.
- This study, involving over 391,000 participants from the UK Biobank, analyzed the relationship between a polygenic risk score (PRS) for HS and the likelihood of developing coronary artery disease (CAD) and diabetes.
- Results showed that a high PRS for HS was associated with increased odds of CAD (1.09) and diabetes (1.13), indicating a significant genetic correlation between HS and these cardiometabolic outcomes.
Aims: Wearable health technologies are increasingly popular. Yet, wearable monitoring only works when devices are worn as intended, and adherence reporting lacks standardization. In this study, we aimed to explore the long-term adherence to a wrist-worn activity tracker in the prospective SafeHeart study and identify patient characteristics associated with adherence.
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- - This study investigates the relationship between physical activity and the need for implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) therapy in patients with an ICD by analyzing their movement and sleep data collected via wrist accelerometers over 28 days.
- - Among 253 participants, higher inactive durations and specific walking cadences were linked to an increased risk of needing ICD therapy, with a U-shaped relationship observed for inactivity and a linear relationship for cadence and sleep duration.
- - The findings suggest that monitoring daily movement and sleep patterns could help predict the risk of ventricular arrhythmia, highlighting the need for larger studies to further explore the use of these digital biomarkers in clinical risk assessment.
Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation for adults with atrial fibrillation.
Cochrane Database Syst Rev
September 2024
Article Synopsis
- Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common heart condition causing irregular heartbeats, which increases risks for strokes and heart failure, and can negatively affect quality of life.
- The study aims to evaluate the benefits and potential drawbacks of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation (ExCR) compared to non-exercise methods for individuals with AF or those who have received treatment for it.
- Researchers conducted a thorough search for randomized clinical trials assessing ExCR interventions, ensuring include participants over 18 with any subtype of AF, and analyzed data to determine the effectiveness and reliability of the evidence gathered.
We aimed to identify and characterise behavioural profiles in patients at high risk of SCD, by using deep representation learning of day-to-day behavioural recordings. We present a pipeline that employed unsupervised clustering on low-dimensional representations of behavioural time-series data learned by a convolutional residual variational neural network (ResNet-VAE). Data from the prospective, observational SafeHeart study conducted at two large tertiary university centers in the Netherlands and Denmark were used.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Subclinical thyroid dysfunction is a marker for atrial fibrillation (AF) and stroke risk. This study explored the effects of AF screening according to thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels.
Methods: An AF screening trial (the LOOP study) was analyzed post-hoc according to baseline TSH.
Article Synopsis
- The study aims to investigate the genetic factors associated with accessory atrioventricular pathways (APs) and related heart rhythm disorders using a genome-wide association study (GWAS).
- It involved analyzing genetic data from over 1,200,000 control individuals and 2,310 individuals with APs from multiple countries and various health databases.
- Key findings revealed three significant genetic variants linked to APs, particularly in specific genes (CCDC141 and SCN10A), with implications for understanding conditions like paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT).
Article Synopsis
- Advances in ICD treatment highlight the necessity for better candidate selection and risk factor identification due to improved outcomes for patients receiving these devices.
- A study analyzed 2998 ICD patients (avg. age 61.8 years, 20% female) over a median follow-up of 4.3 years, finding that 14.2% experienced shocks, with 12.1% deemed appropriate and 2.7% inappropriate.
- Results suggested that female patients had a lower risk of experiencing appropriate shocks, but only a few clinical factors were useful in predicting shocks, indicating a need for more sophisticated tools for candidate selection in ICD therapy.
Article Synopsis
- Electrocardiographic abnormalities are common in patients with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy and were analyzed over the long term in a study involving 353 patients and almost 7,000 ECGs.
- The study found that over time, there were notable changes in QRS voltage, R- and T-wave amplitudes, as well as increases in QRS duration, terminal activation duration, and QTc interval, indicating a progressive worsening of the condition.
- T-wave inversions observed before diagnosis were linked to a higher risk of future ventricular arrhythmias, suggesting these ECG abnormalities could serve as early indicators of the disease even if they don't meet the full diagnostic criteria.
Article Synopsis
- This study compares the prognostic value of different body measurement indices, like BMI and waist-to-height ratio, in predicting mortality in patients with non-ischaemic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).
- It finds that higher BMI is linked to increased risks of all-cause and cardiovascular death, particularly in patients with a BMI of 35 or more.
- The research suggests that greater waist-to-height ratios also indicate higher mortality risk, highlighting the importance of fat location and distribution beyond just body weight.
Article Synopsis
- A budget impact analysis was conducted to compare the costs of current treatment strategies with a new approach for population screening of atrial fibrillation (AF) in 75-year-olds across eight European countries.
- The analysis showed that while AF screening leads to increased initial costs due to higher drug and screening expenses, it ultimately results in savings from reduced stroke-related costs.
- The net budget impact of implementing AF screening varied by country, ranging from €10 in Ireland to €122 in the Netherlands, demonstrating the overall financial benefit of the screening despite the upfront costs.
Individuals with subclinical atrial fibrillation (AF) face an increased risk of thromboembolic events, which may potentially be mitigated through AF screening and subsequent anticoagulation. However, data from randomized clinical trials (RCTs) indicate a lower stroke risk in subclinical AF compared with the clinical phenotype. This-along with the inherent bleeding risk related to anticoagulation-seems to render the net clinical benefit of AF screening less evident.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Mounting evidence indicates that even device-detected subclinical atrial fibrillation is associated with a higher risk of heart failure (HF). However, the potential impact of atrial fibrillation screening on HF remains unknown.
Methods: The LOOP Study (Atrial Fibrillation detected by Continuous ECG Monitoring using Implantable Loop Recorder to prevent Stroke in High-risk Individuals) evaluated the effects of atrial fibrillation screening on stroke prevention using an implantable loop recorder (ILR) versus usual care in older individuals with additional stroke risk factors.
Background: Stopping nucleos(t)ide analogue (NA) therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) may trigger a beneficial immune response leading to HBsAg loss, but clinical trials on re-start strategies are lacking.
Aim: To assess whether it is beneficial to undergo a prolonged flare after NA cessation.
Methods: One-hundred-and-twenty-seven patients with HBeAg negative, non-cirrhotic CHB with at least 24 months of viral suppression on NA therapy were included.
Importance: Atrial fibrillation (AF) has a substantial genetic component. The importance of polygenic risk is well established, while the contribution of rare variants to disease risk warrants characterization in large cohorts.
Objective: To identify rare predicted loss-of-function (pLOF) variants associated with AF and elucidate their role in risk of AF, cardiomyopathy (CM), and heart failure (HF) in combination with a polygenic risk score (PRS).
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates the genetic basis of supraventricular tachycardias, focusing on atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia (AVNRT) and atrioventricular accessory pathways/reciprocating tachycardia (AVAP/AVRT).
- Through multiancestry meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies, researchers identified significant genetic loci associated with AVNRT and AVAP/AVRT, implicating specific genes in these cardiac conditions.
- The results suggest that gene regions related to ion channels and cardiac development play crucial roles in susceptibility to supraventricular tachycardias, potentially influencing other cardiovascular issues such as atrial fibrillation
Subarachnoid haemorrhages (SAH) caused by rupture of intracranial aneurysms (IA) are a severe condition. Earlier studies found a higher incidence of SAH in Greenlandic patients compared to Danish patients, with familial aggregation also higher in Greenland. However, updated data is lacking.
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- The Heart Failure Collaboratory (HFC) score evaluates pharmacotherapy for heart failure patients, and this study analyzed its impact in 1116 Danish patients with nonischemic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).
- A lower modified HFC (mHFC) score was linked to increased all-cause mortality, while an mHFC score of 3-4 had better outcomes compared to scores of 1-2.
- Despite these findings, implanting cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) did not improve overall or cardiovascular survival rates in these patients, although it did reduce sudden cardiovascular deaths.
Article Synopsis
- Current guidelines recommend implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) therapy for patients with heart failure and left ventricular ejection fraction ≤35%, but the benefits of ICDs in patients with NYHA class III remain uncertain.
- The DANISH trial studied 1116 patients and found that those in NYHA class III/IV had higher long-term all-cause and cardiovascular mortality rates compared to those in NYHA class II.
- Despite these findings, ICD implantation did not significantly reduce all-cause or cardiovascular mortality rates in either NYHA class, indicating a limited benefit of ICD therapy for this patient population.
Background: The treatment of pulmonary hypertension (PH) has improved rapidly in recent decades. There is increasing evidence to support the role of early intervention and treatment in affecting clinical outcomes in PH.
Objectives: To assess treatment effects before and after the escalation of specific PH treatments using continuous heart monitoring with a Reveal LINQ loop recorder.