Genetic risk and atrial fibrillation in patients with heart failure.

Aims: To study the association between an atrial fibrillation (AF) genetic risk score with prevalent AF and all-cause mortality in patients with heart failure.

Methods And Results: An AF genetic risk score was calculated in 3759 European ancestry individuals (1783 with sinus rhythm, 1976 with AF) from the BIOlogy Study to TAilored Treatment in Chronic Heart Failure (BIOSTAT-CHF) by summing 97 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) alleles (ranging from 0-2) weighted by the natural logarithm of the relative SNP risk from the latest AF genome-wide association study. Further, we assessed AF risk variance explained by additive SNP variation, and performance of clinical or genetic risk factors, and the combination in classifying AF prevalence.

Adult Still's disease associated with Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection.

Adult Still's disease (ASD) is a systemic inflammatory disorder of unknown origin. Several reports have suggested a triggering infection in ASD. We describe a case of ASD associated with acute Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection.

[Viral etiology of insulin-dependent diabetes (author's transl)].

Data are collected here that may support the hypothesis that there is an infectious component in the genesis of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. The clinical and experimental data on which that hypothesis is based referring to viruses such as: mumps virus, rubella virus, encephalomyocarditis virus, and Coxsackie B viruses, are presented. The authors mention the pathogenic mechanism, which extends over the existence of diabetogenic genes linked to the major complex of the histocompatibility HLA system, as well as the existence of an autoimmune reaction induced by the infecting virus.