Exercise-induced silent myocardial ischemia and coronary morbidity and mortality in middle-aged men.

Objectives: We investigated the prognostic significance of exercise-induced silent myocardial ischemia in both high and low risk men with no prior coronary heart disease (CHD).

Background: Silent ischemia predicts future coronary events in patients with CHD, but there is little evidence of its prognostic significance in subjects free of CHD.

Methods: We investigated the association of silent ischemia, as defined by ST depression during and after maximal symptom-limited exercise test, with coronary risk in a population-based sample of men with no prior CHD followed for 10 years on average.

An insertion/deletion polymorphism in the alpha2B-adrenergic receptor gene is a novel genetic risk factor for acute coronary events.

Objectives: Our aim was to study whether an insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism in the alpha2B-adrenoceptor gene is associated with the risk for cardiovascular diseases.

Background: alpha2-adrenoceptors mediate contraction of vascular smooth muscle and induce coronary vasoconstriction in humans. The alpha2-adrenoceptor subtype B mediates vasoconstriction in mice.

Antioxidant Supplementation in Atherosclerosis Prevention (ASAP) study: a randomized trial of the effect of vitamins E and C on 3-year progression of carotid atherosclerosis.

Objectives: To study the efficacy of vitamin E and C supplementation on the progression of carotid atherosclerosis, hypothesizing an enhanced preventive effect in men and in smokers and synergism between vitamins.

Design And Subjects: Double-masked two-by-two factorial trial, randomization in four strata (by gender and smoking status) to receive twice daily either 91 mg (136 IU) of d-alpha-tocopherol, 250 mg of slow-release vitamin C, a combination of these or placebo for three years. A randomized sample of 520 smoking and nonsmoking men and postmenopausal women aged 45-69 years with serum cholesterol >/= 5.

Antioxidative efficacy of parallel and combined supplementation with coenzyme Q10 and d-alpha-tocopherol in mildly hypercholesterolemic subjects: a randomized placebo-controlled clinical study.

It has been claimed that coenzyme Q10 (Q10) would be an effective plasma antioxidant since it can regenerate plasma vitamin E. To test separate effects and interaction between Q10 and vitamin E in the change of plasma concentrations and in the antioxidative efficiency, we carried out a double-masked, double-blind clinical trial in 40 subjects with mild hypercholesterolemia undergoing statin treatment. Subjects were randomly allocated to parallel groups to receive either Q10 (200 mg daily), d-alpha-tocopherol (700 mg daily), both antioxidants or placebo for 3 months.

The common pentanucleotide polymorphism of the 3'-untranslated region of the leptin receptor gene is associated with serum insulin levels and the risk of type 2 diabetes in non-diabetic men: a prospective case-control study.

Objectives: The purpose of the study was to test whether the pentanucleotide insertion/deletion polymorphism in the 3'-untranslated region (3'-UTR) of the leptin receptor gene, which has previously been associated with serum insulin levels in obese subjects, is associated with insulin levels and the risk of type 2 diabetes in non-diabetic middle-aged men.

Subjects And Design: We studied these associations in a prospective population-based nested case-control study in 41 men who developed type 2 diabetes during 4-year follow-up and 81 controls who were matched for age, obesity, baseline glucose and insulin and other strongest risk factors. Both the cases and the controls came from a cohort of 985 men who had no diabetes at baseline.

Neuropeptide Y polymorphism and alcohol consumption in middle-aged men.

Neuropeptide Y (NPY) plays an important role in the hypothalamic regulation of food intake and energy balance. According to recent findings in animals, NPY also seems to be a potent regulator of alcohol consumption. We used the recently identified Leu(7) to Pro(7) polymorphism in the signal peptide part of NPY to investigate whether the NPY system is associated with alcohol consumption in humans.

Association between the functional polymorphism of catechol-O-methyltransferase gene and alcohol consumption among social drinkers.

Background: A common functional genetic polymorphism in the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene (Val158 Met) results in 3- to 4-fold differences in COMT enzyme activity and dopamine inactivation rate. Previous studies have shown that type I alcoholism is more common among subjects with low activity COMT genotype (LL), compared with high activity (HH) or heterozygotic (LH) genotypes.

Methods: We studied alcohol consumption and the COMT genotype in middle-aged Finnish men (n 896), who represented an unselected ethnically homogenous population sample and reported using alcohol during the past year.

Increased risk of acute myocardial infarction in carriers of the hemochromatosis gene Cys282Tyr mutation : a prospective cohort study in men in eastern Finland.

Background-Homozygosity for a relatively common Cys282Tyr mutation of the human hemochromatosis-associated (HFE) gene was recently found to account for most cases of hereditary hemochromatosis. Because excess iron has been postulated to enhance risk of vascular disease, we studied whether occurrence of this mutation was associated with increased risk of first acute myocardial infarction in healthy middle-aged men in a prospective cohort study. Methods and Results-Study subjects were the 1150 participants in the population-based Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study (KIHD), aged 42, 48, 54, or 60 years at baseline, who had no coronary heart disease at baseline and for whom a DNA sample was available.

Determinants of plasma coenzyme Q10 in humans.

In the present study, we assessed the strongest determinants of plasma coenzyme Q10 (Qm10) in 518 men and women (aged 45-70 years) with a stepwise multivariate regression model. Male gender (P<0.001), serum cholesterol (P<0.

Donation of blood is associated with reduced risk of myocardial infarction. The Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study.

Because high body iron stores have been suggested as a risk factor for acute myocardial infarction, donation of blood could theoretically reduce the risk by lowering body iron stores. For this reason, the authors tested the hypothesis that voluntary blood donation is associated with reduced risk of acute myocardial infarction in a prospective epidemiologic follow-up study in men from eastern Finland. The subjects are all participants of the Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study.

Association between body iron stores and the risk of acute myocardial infarction in men.

Background: Epidemiological evidence concerning the role of iron, a lipid peroxidation catalyst, in coronary heart disease (CHD) is inconsistent. We investigated the association of the concentration ratio of serum transferrin receptor to serum ferritin (TfR/ferritin), a state-of-the-art measurement of body iron stores, with the risk of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in a prospective nested case-control study in men from eastern Finland.

Methods And Results: Transferrin receptor assays were carried out for 99 men who had an AMI during an average 6.

Body iron stores are associated with serum insulin and blood glucose concentrations. Population study in 1,013 eastern Finnish men.

Objective: To study if there is an association between mildly elevated body iron and glucose homeostasis indexes.

Research Design And Methods: A cross-sectional population study was conducted in 1,013 middle-aged men, and an association of serum ferritin with concentrations of serum insulin, blood glucose, and serum fructosamine was tested.

Results: The mean concentration of fasting serum insulin was 21.

Lipoprotein oxidation and progression of carotid atherosclerosis.

Background: Epidemiological studies and animal experiments have provided evidence supporting the role of lipid peroxidation in atherogenesis and cardiovascular diseases. Direct evidence linking lipid oxidation to atherosclerotic progression in humans, however, has been lacking. We investigated the association of lipid oxidation products with the progression of early carotid atherosclerosis in hypercholesterolemic men from eastern Finland.

Increased risk of non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus at low plasma vitamin E concentrations: a four year follow up study in men.

Objective: To investigate whether low vitamin E status is a risk factor for incident non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus.

Design: Population based follow up study with diabetes assessed at baseline and at four years.

Setting: Eastern Finland.

Lowering of body iron stores by blood letting and oxidation resistance of serum lipoproteins: a randomized cross-over trial in male smokers.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that the reduction of body iron stores by venesection (blood letting) would reduce the susceptibility to oxidation of atherogenic serum lipoproteins.

Design: This is a randomized, controlled cross-over trial in 14 regularly smoking men with elevated serum ferritin concentration. The study design comprised two 14-week study periods, with a 14-week wash-out period in between, with either blood donations or control.