Changes in basal and postmethionine load concentrations of total homocysteine and cystathionine after B vitamin intervention.

Background: Vitamin B-6 is necessary for the metabolism of homocysteine and is often used in combination with folic acid and vitamin B-12 in clinical trials that investigate whether the lowering of plasma total homocysteine (tHcy) can prevent vascular disease.

Objective: We compared the effects of vitamin B-6 with the effects of folic acid and vitamin B-12, as used in the Western Norway B-vitamin Intervention Trial (WENBIT), on basal and postmethionine load (PML) tHcy and cystathionine concentrations.

Design: Ninety patients with suspected coronary artery disease were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 groups to receive daily oral treatment with 1) 0.

Associations between maternal methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase polymorphisms and adverse outcomes of pregnancy: the Hordaland Homocysteine Study.

Purpose: Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) is involved in the metabolism of folate and homocysteine; a polymorphism in the MTHFR gene (677C-->T) has been associated with adverse outcomes of pregnancy. We studied whether two polymorphisms in the MTHFR gene (677C-->T and 1298A-->C) are associated with pregnancy complications, adverse outcomes, and birth defects.

Methods: MTHFR polymorphisms were determined in blood collected in 1992 and 1993 from 5883 women aged 40 to 42 years, and linked with 14,492 pregnancies in the same women recorded in the Medical Birth Registry of Norway from 1967 to 1996.

Failure rates for 4762 revision total hip arthroplasties in the Norwegian Arthroplasty Register.

We present the results for 4762 revision total hip arthroplasties with no previous infection in the hip, which were reported to the Norwegian Arthroplasty Register between 1987 and 2003. The ten-year failure rate for revised prostheses was 26% (95% CI 25 to 26). Cox regression analyses were undertaken separately for acetabular and femoral revision components.

Changes in lifestyle and plasma total homocysteine: the Hordaland Homocysteine Study.

Background: Elevated plasma concentrations of total homocysteine (tHcy) are a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. tHcy is a marker of folate and cobalamin deficiencies and is also related to several lifestyle factors.

Objective: We examined whether changes in lifestyle influence tHcy over time.

Usefulness and safety of percutaneous myocardial laser revascularization for refractory angina pectoris.

This prospective, double-blind, randomized, sham-controlled trial was designed to control for patient and investigator bias in assessing symptomatic improvement after percutaneous myocardial laser revascularization (PMLR) therapy. Eighty-two patients with stable angina pectoris (class III or IV) not amenable to conventional revascularization and with evidence of reversible ischemia, ejection fraction >/=25%, and myocardial wall thickness >/=8 mm were randomized to either PMLR with optimal medical therapy (n = 40) or to a sham procedure with optimal medical therapy (n = 42). With the exception of 1 laser technician, all patients, investigators, and assessors were blinded to treatment through the 12-month follow-up.

[In utero exposure to benzodiazepine. Is there a risk for anal atresia with lorazepam?].

Drugs of the Benzodiazepine family are among the most frequently prescribed in France. Since anxiety disorders, for which these substances are mostly indicated, affect 10% of pregnant women, it is very likely that such a treatment could expose many foetuses to BZD during the first three Months of pregnancy. We know that the teratologic effect is not necessarily based on dose rate, but that it is associated with fetal drug exposure during the first 12 weeks of gestation, when organ formation occurs.

Antibiotic prophylaxis in total hip arthroplasty: effects of antibiotic prophylaxis systemically and in bone cement on the revision rate of 22,170 primary hip replacements followed 0-14 years in the Norwegian Arthroplasty Register.

We studied the effects of antibiotic prophylaxis, systemically and in bone cement, on the revision rate of cemented total hip arthroplasties (THAs) in data from the Norwegian Arthroplasty Register during the period 1987-2001. To have comparable groups, only THAs performed because of primary osteoarthritis, using cemented implants with documented good results, and high-viscosity cement were included. If systemic antibiotic prophylaxis had been given, only operations with cephalosporin or penicillin were selected.

Hematological parameters and cobalamin status in infants born to smoking mothers.

Hematological parameters, serum cobalamin and folate levels, and the concentrations of the functional markers plasma methylmalonic acid and total homocysteine were determined in 173 newborns and 46 infants at 6 weeks to see whether maternal smoking influences the hematological parameters and the vitamin status of the newborn. At birth, there was a strong inverse correlation between the number of cigarettes smoked per day during pregnancy and red blood cell count (r = -0.56, p = 0.

Homocysteine and its relation to B-vitamins in Graves' disease before and after treatment: effect modification by smoking.

Objectives: To investigate plasma total homocysteine levels and its relation to B-vitamins and smoking in Graves' disease before and after antithyroid therapy.

Design: A longitudinal study taking place at four hospitals in Norway.

Methods And Subjects: Plasma total homocysteine, serum folate, serum cobalamin and riboflavin, flavin mononucleotide and flavin adenine dinucleotide in plasma were investigated in 182 patients with hyperthyroidism before treatment.

Folate, vitamin B12, homocysteine, and the MTHFR 677C->T polymorphism in anxiety and depression: the Hordaland Homocysteine Study.

Background: An association between depression and folate status has been demonstrated in clinical studies, whereas data are sparse on the relationship between depression and other components of 1-carbon metabolism such as vitamin B12, homocysteine, and the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase 677C-->T polymorphism. The relationship between anxiety and these components is less well known. This study examined the associations between folate, total homocysteine, vitamin B12, and the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase 677C-->T polymorphism, and anxiety and depression in a large population-based study.

Plasma total cysteine, mortality, and cardiovascular disease hospitalizations: the Hordaland Homocysteine Study.

Background: We have previously reported a positive association between tHcy and mortality and cardiovascular disease (CVD) hospitalizations in the Hordaland Homocysteine Study cohort. Using the same data set, we assessed the relationship between plasma total cysteine (tCys) and mortality from all causes and from cardiovascular and noncardiovascular conditions, and the association between tCys and the risk of hospitalizations from CVD.

Methods: We measured plasma tCys in blood samples from 12,595 men and women 40-42 years of age and from 4766 men and women 65-67 years of age, collected as part of the Hordaland Homocysteine Study in the year 1992-1993.

Plasma total cysteine, pregnancy complications, and adverse pregnancy outcomes: the Hordaland Homocysteine Study.

Background: Total homocysteine (tHcy) is associated with pregnancy complications and adverse pregnancy outcomes. The associations of plasma total cysteine (tCys) with such outcomes have not been investigated in large populations.

Objective: We investigated the association between plasma tCys and pregnancy complications, congenital malformations, and other adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Predictors of change in plasma total cysteine: longitudinal findings from the Hordaland homocysteine study.

Background: Total cysteine (tCys) in plasma has recently been linked to cardiovascular risk and is also associated with cardiovascular risk factors, including body mass index (BMI) and cholesterol. Changes and predictors of change in tCys concentrations over a mean follow-up time of 6.0 (5.

Thermolabile methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase, homocysteine, and cardiovascular disease risk: the European Concerted Action Project.

Background: Homozygotes for the thermolabile mutation (TT genotype) of the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR; EC 1.5.1.

Early postoperative mortality after 67,548 total hip replacements: causes of death and thromboprophylaxis in 68 hospitals in Norway from 1987 to 1999.

Patients in the Norwegian Arthroplasty Register with a total hip replacement (THR) have a lower long-term mortality than the age- and gender-matched Norwegian population. We analyzed the early postoperative mortality after 67,548 THR operations in 68 hospitals reported to the Norwegian Arthroplasty Register between 1987 and 1999. Data on deaths and causes of death were obtained from from Statistics Norway, and on thromboprophylaxis from a separate questionnaire sent to all hospitals.

Holo-transcobalamin is an early marker of changes in cobalamin homeostasis. A randomized placebo-controlled study.

Background: We examined the effect of oral vitamin B(12) treatment on fluctuations in plasma total cobalamin and its binding proteins transcobalamin (TC) and haptocorrin (HC).

Methods: Patients (n = 88; age range, 38-80 years) undergoing coronary angiography (part of the homocysteine-lowering Western Norway B-Vitamin Intervention Trial) were allocated to daily oral treatment with (a) vitamin B(12) (0.4 mg), folic acid (0.

The type of cement and failure of total hip replacements.

Using data from the Norwegian Arthroplasty egister, we have assessed the survival of 17 323 primary Charnley hip prostheses in patients with osteoarthritis based upon the type of cement used for the fixation of the implant. Overall, 9.2% had been revised after follow-up for ten years; 71% of the failures involved aseptic loosening of the femoral component.

Early failures among 7,174 primary total knee replacements: a follow-up study from the Norwegian Arthroplasty Register 1994-2000.

We studied primary total knee replacements (TKRs), reported to the Norwegian Arthroplasty Register, operated on between 1994 and 2000. A Cox multiple regression model was used to evaluate differences in survival among the prosthesis brands, their types of fixation, and whether or not the patella was resurfaced. In Norway in 1999, the incidence of knee prosthesis operations was 35 per 100,000 inhabitants.

Plasma total homocysteine and hospitalizations for cardiovascular disease: the Hordaland Homocysteine Study.

Background: Elevated total plasma homocysteine (tHcy) level is a risk factor for occlusive disease in the coronary, cerebral, and peripheral vessels and is related to several lifestyle factors associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Objective: To examine the association of a single tHcy measurement on subsequent hospitalizations due to CVD.

Methods: A population-based prospective cohort study was conducted from April 1, 1992, to May 31, 1998 (mean follow-up, 5.

The Hordaland Homocysteine Studies.

The Hordaland Homocysteine Study is a population-based screening of total plasma homocysteine (tHcy) in approximately 18,000 men and women aged 40-67 yr that took place in 1992-1993 in the county of Hordaland in Western Norway. In this cohort, tHcy was associated with several physiologic and life-style factors, including age and gender, blood pressure, serum cholesterol, smoking, alcohol and coffee consumption, physical activity, diet, and vitamin status. All associations with established cardiovascular risk factors were in the direction expected to confer increased risk.

Determinants of cobalamin status in newborns.

Objective: Cobalamin deficiency accompanied by bone marrow dysfunction and impaired central nervous system development has been reported in infants who were born to mothers with low cobalamin intake. We investigated the relation between cobalamin status in newborns and in their healthy mothers who consumed an omnivorous diet.

Methods: Serum cobalamin and the functional markers plasma methylmalonic acid (MMA) and total homocysteine (tHcy) were determined in 173 newborns and their mothers.