Publications by authors named "Thomas van Sloten"
Article Synopsis
- This study examined the link between plasma biomarkers indicating endothelial dysfunction and cognitive performance in a sample of 9,414 older adults from the Netherlands, aged 57 to 93 years.
- Researchers created a composite score from three specific biomarkers and assessed various cognitive functions like executive function and memory.
- Results indicated a small, consistent association between higher endothelial dysfunction scores and poorer cognitive performance, but no evidence suggested that these markers influenced cognitive decline over time.
Article Synopsis
- The study investigated how age, education, and sex/gender relate to performance in semantic fluency, which is the ability to generate words within a certain category.
- Data from 2,391 individuals across three different cohorts were analyzed, measuring factors like average cluster size and lexical decision response time in addition to the total number of words generated.
- Results indicated that older age and being female were both linked to lower performance in word generation, while higher education correlated with better performance across various metrics, showing consistent trends across different cohorts.
Article Synopsis
- Vascular ageing is when our blood vessels become older and don’t work as well, which happens naturally as we get older but can get worse with diseases.
- Scientists are starting to look at how we can measure vascular ageing to help find out if someone is at risk for heart problems and to help doctors decide on treatments.
- Experts are working on new technology to measure vascular ageing better and are trying to figure out how to use this information in hospitals and for future research.
Background: Better cardiovascular health is associated with lower risk of various chronic diseases, but its association with multimorbidity is poorly understood. We aimed to examine whether change in cardiovascular health is associated with multimorbidity risk.
Methods: The primary analysis was conducted in the Whitehall II multiwave prospective cohort study (UK) and the validation analysis in the Finnish Public Sector cohort study (Finland).
Aims: Identifying patients with established cardiovascular disease (CVD) who are at high risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) may allow for early interventions, reducing the development of T2D and associated morbidity. The aim of this study was to develop and externally validate the CVD2DM model to estimate the 10-year and lifetime risks of T2D in patients with established CVD.
Methods And Results: Sex-specific, competing risk-adjusted Cox proportional hazard models were derived in 19 281 participants with established CVD and without diabetes at baseline from the UK Biobank.
Background: Cerebral microvascular dysfunction may contribute to depression via disruption of brain structures involved in mood regulation, but evidence is limited. We investigated the association of retinal microvascular function, a proxy for microvascular function in the brain, with incidence and trajectories of clinically relevant depressive symptoms.
Methods: Longitudinal data are from The Maastricht Study of 5952 participants (59.
Aims: To develop and externally validate the LIFE-T1D model for the estimation of lifetime and 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in individuals with type 1 diabetes.
Materials And Methods: A sex-specific competing risk-adjusted Cox proportional hazards model was derived in individuals with type 1 diabetes without prior CVD from the Swedish National Diabetes Register (NDR), using age as the time axis. Predictors included age at diabetes onset, smoking status, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, glycated haemoglobin level, estimated glomerular filtration rate, non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, albuminuria and retinopathy.
Objectives: Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is associated with increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Whether screen-detected T2DM, based on fasting plasma glucose (FPG) or on HbA, are associated with different risks of incident CVD in high-risk populations and which one is preferable for diabetes screening in these populations, remains unclear.
Methods: A total of 8,274 high-risk CVD participants were included from the UCC-SMART cohort.
Aims/hypothesis: Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) is increasingly used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes, but the effects on glycaemic control are unclear. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to provide a comprehensive overview of the effect of CGM on glycaemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes.
Methods: We performed a systematic review using Embase, MEDLINE, Web of Science, Scopus and ClinicalTrials.
Background: Microvascular dysfunction is involved in the development of various cerebral disorders. It may contribute to these disorders by disrupting white matter tracts and altering brain connectivity, but evidence is scarce. We investigated the association between multiple biomarkers of microvascular function and whole-brain white matter connectivity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: We first examined the role of age at cardiovascular disease (CVD) onset for incident dementia, and then examined whether lifestyle factors at guideline-recommended levels in individuals with CVD mitigates dementia risk.
Methods: We used population-based data (Whitehall II: n = 10,308/baseline 1985-1988/examinations every 4-5 years). Lifestyle factors (non-smoking, body mass index [BMI], physical activity, diet) were extracted post-CVD.
Aims: To quantify the relationship between self-reported, long-term lifestyle changes (smoking, waist circumference, physical activity, and alcohol consumption) and clinical outcomes in patients with established cardiovascular disease (CVD).
Methods And Results: Data were used from 2011 participants (78% male, age 57 ± 9 years) from the Utrecht Cardiovascular Cohort-Second Manifestations of ARTerial disease cohort who returned for a re-assessment visit (SMART2) after ∼10 years. Self-reported lifestyle change was classified as persistently healthy, improved, worsened, or persistently unhealthy.
Introduction: The management of type 1 diabetes (T1DM) has undergone significant advancements with the availability of novel technologies, notably continuous and flash glucose monitoring (CGM and FGM, respectively) and hybrid closed loop (HCL) therapy. The dual hormone fully closed loop (DHFCL) approach with insulin and glucagon infusion has shown promising effects in small studies on glycaemic regulation and quality of life in T1DM.
Methods And Analysis: The Dual Hormone Fully Closed Loop for Type 1 Diabetes (DARE) study is a non-commercial 12-month open-label, two-arm randomised parallel-group trial.
Thinner inner retinal layers are associated with lower cognitive performance, lower brain volume, and altered white matter network structure-The Maastricht Study.
Alzheimers Dement
January 2024
Introduction: The retina may provide non-invasive, scalable biomarkers for monitoring cerebral neurodegeneration.
Methods: We used cross-sectional data from The Maastricht study (n = 3436; mean age 59.3 years; 48% men; and 21% with type 2 diabetes [the latter oversampled by design]).
Article Synopsis
- Primordial prevention, focusing on reducing risk factors early on, may help prevent cancer as well as cardiovascular disease, emphasizing the need for a broader health approach.
- A study involving 39,718 participants from three European cohorts found that more ideal cardiovascular health metrics in midlife were linked to a reduced overall cancer risk, including a specific connection to lung cancer.
- The findings suggest that maintaining healthy cardiovascular habits earlier in life could serve as an effective strategy to lower the risk of developing cancer later on.
We investigated the associations of plasma neurofilament light (NfL), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), and total tau (t-tau) with markers of cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) and with incident dementia. We also investigated whether associations of NfL, GFAP, and t-tau with incident dementia were explained by SVD. Data are from a random subsample (n = 1069) of the population-based AGES-Reykjavik Study who underwent brain MRI and in whom plasma NfL, GFAP, and t-tau were measured at baseline (76.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVariability in benefit from intensive insulin therapy on cardiovascular events in individuals with type 1 diabetes: A post hoc analysis of the DCCT/EDIC study.
Diabet Med
November 2023
Aim: To evaluate presence of treatment effect heterogeneity of intensive insulin therapy (INT) on occurrence of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in individuals with type 1 diabetes.
Methods: In participants from the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial/Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications (DCCT/EDIC) study, individual treatment effect of INT (≥3 daily insulin injections/insulin pump therapy) versus conventional therapy (once/twice daily insulin) on the risk of MACE was estimated using a penalized Cox regression model including treatment-by-covariate interaction terms.
Results: In 1441 participants, 120 first MACE events were observed and 1279 individuals (89%) were predicted to benefit from INT with regard to MACE risk reduction.
Post hoc analyses of previous fibrate trials have suggested that individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus with high triglyceride levels and low HDL-cholesterol levels benefit from fibrate therapy even when the overall trial results were neutral. However the PROMINENT (Pemafibrate to Reduce Cardiovascular Outcomes by Reducing Triglycerides in Patients with Diabetes) trial seems to close the door for fibrates. The trial found that fibrates do not reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease among individuals with type 2 diabetes and high triglyceride levels and low HDL cholesterol levels, despite triglyceride lowering.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPerson-centered cardiovascular health (CVH) may facilitate cardiovascular disease primordial prevention in low resources settings. The study aims to assess the validity of person-centered CVH compared to gold standard measured CVH by examining the concordance between person-centered vs. measured CVH together with their respective association with incident cardiovascular disease events (CVD).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Cardiovascular health may be used for prevention of cerebral vascular disease; however, data on the association of cardiovascular health across midlife and late-life with late-life cerebral vascular disease are lacking. Our aim was to examine whether midlife or late-life cardiovascular health as well as changes of cardiovascular health within midlife and between midlife and late-life were associated with prevalence of magnetic resonance imaging markers of cerebral vascular disease at late-life.
Methods: Prospective cohort study including 1638 participants from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study who took part in 2 visits at midlife (mean ages, 53 and 59 years), and a late-life visit (mean age, 76 years).
Background: The commonality of risk factors between cancer and cardiovascular disease suggests that primordial prevention (preventing the onset of risk factors) is a relevant strategy for cancer prevention.
Objectives: This study sought to examine the association between baseline and change in the cardiovascular health (CVH) score and incident cancer.
Methods: Using serial examinations of the GAZEL (GAZ et ELECTRICITE de France) study in France, we examined the associations between the American Heart Association's Life's Simple 7 CVH score (range: 0-to 14 [poor, intermediate, and ideal level of smoking, physical activity, body mass index, diet, blood pressure, diabetes status, or lipids]) in 1989/1990, their change over 7 years, and incident cancer and cardiac events up to 2015.
Importance: Cardiovascular health may be used for prevention of depressive symptoms. However, data on the association of cardiovascular health across midlife with depressive symptoms are lacking.
Objective: To evaluate whether better baseline cardiovascular health and improvement of cardiovascular health over time are associated with a lower risk of both incident depressive symptoms and unfavorable trajectories of depressive symptoms.
Association of type 2 diabetes according to the number of risk factors within the recommended range with incidence of major depression and clinically relevant depressive symptoms: a prospective analysis.
Lancet Healthy Longev
February 2023
Background: Type 2 diabetes is associated with an increased risk of depression, but the extent to which risk factor modification can mitigate this risk is unclear. We aimed to examine the association between the incidence of major depression and clinically relevant depressive symptoms among individuals with type 2 diabetes, according to the number of risk factors within the recommended target range, compared with individuals without diabetes.
Methods: We did a prospective analysis of population-based data from the UK Biobank and the Maastricht Study.