Publications by authors named "William B Howells"

Aims: Nicotine dependence is a highly heritable disorder associated with severe medical morbidity and mortality. Recent meta-analyses have found novel genetic loci associated with cigarettes per day (CPD), a proxy for nicotine dependence. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the importance of phenotype definition (i.

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Objectives: To determine if: 1) depressed patients with a recent acute myocardial infarction (AMI) have higher nighttime heart rate (HR) than nondepressed patients, and 2) elevated nighttime HR is associated with decreased survival post AMI. Depression is a risk factor for mortality post AMI. It is also associated with sleep disturbances and with elevated HR, which may be more pronounced at night.

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Objective: Depression is a risk factor for mortality after acute myocardial infarction (AMI), possibly as a result of altered autonomic nervous system (ANS) modulation of heart rate (HR) and rhythm. The purposes of this study were to determine: a) whether depressed patients are more likely to have an abnormal HR response (i.e.

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Objective: Depression is a risk factor for cardiac events in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). Obstructive sleep apnea/hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) is frequently comorbid with depression and is also a risk factor for cardiac events. Undetected OSAHS could help explain the increased risk associated with depression.

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Background: Depression is associated with an increased risk for mortality after acute myocardial infarction (MI). The purpose of this study was to determine whether low heart rate variability (HRV) mediates the effect of depression on mortality.

Methods: Twenty-four-hour ambulatory electrocardiograms were obtained from 311 depressed patients with a recent acute MI who were enrolled in the Enhancing Recovery in Coronary Heart Disease (ENRICHD) clinical trial and from 367 nondepressed patients who met the ENRICHD medical inclusion criteria.

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Objectives: To describe features of patients with acute myeloid leukemia presenting with extramedullary leukemic tumors (EML).

Methods: Among 1,832 patients entered on Children's Cancer Group's chemotherapy trials with acute myeloid leukemia, 199 patients had EML, defined as any leukemic collection outside the bone marrow cavity. Three patient groups were denoted: group 1 (n=109) with EML involving skin (with or without other sites of EML), group 2 (n=90) with EML in sites other than skin, and group 3 (n=1,633) without EML.

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