6,703 results match your criteria: "Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care.[Affiliation]"

Article Synopsis
  • A clinical trial tested a new single-pill combination of low-dose medications (telmisartan, amlodipine, and indapamide) to treat hypertension, comparing two doses against a placebo over four weeks.
  • Results showed significant reductions in home systolic blood pressure (SBP) for both medication doses compared to placebo, with reductions of -7.3 mm Hg and -8.2 mm Hg, respectively, and a notable increase in blood pressure control rates among those taking the medications.
  • Safety observations indicated low treatment discontinuation rates, with the ¼ dose showing only 1.6% discontinuations due to adverse effects, while the ½ dose had a 5
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Background And Aims: The incidence of cerebrovascular disease (CVD) is rising among young adults (< 55 years). The risk for CVD starts to form in early childhood and is comprised of genetic and environmental risk factors. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between early family socioeconomic status (SES), inherited risk, and CVD until midlife.

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Understanding the genetic basis of neuro-related proteins is essential for dissecting the molecular basis of human behavioural traits and the disease aetiology of neuropsychiatric disorders. Here the SCALLOP Consortium conducted a genome-wide association meta-analysis of over 12,000 individuals for 184 neuro-related proteins in human plasma. The analysis identified 125 cis-regulatory protein quantitative trait loci (cis-pQTL) and 164 trans-pQTL.

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The association of sociodemographic factors with total and item-level semantic fluency metrics.

Neuropsychology

October 2024

Department of Epidemiology and Global Health, Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University.

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.
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The Diagnostic Value of ECG Characteristics for Vasospastic and Microvascular Angina: A Systematic Review.

Ann Noninvasive Electrocardiol

September 2024

Laboratory of Experimental Cardiology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Article Synopsis
  • Coronary vascular dysfunction, more common in women with non-obstructive angina, includes vasospastic angina (VSA) and microvascular angina (MVA), with invasive tests being the standard but burdensome for patients.
  • This study reviewed ECG characteristics linked to VSA and MVA by analyzing 30 relevant publications, revealing that repolarization changes are significant predictors for both conditions, but diagnostic evaluations in studies are scarce.
  • Only a few studies stratified results by sex, indicating that while ECG could aid in noninvasive diagnosis and risk assessment, more targeted research is needed to fully understand its efficacy and potential sex differences.
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Temporal Trends in Air Pollution Exposure across Socioeconomic Groups in The Netherlands.

Int J Environ Res Public Health

July 2024

Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, Internal Mail No. Str. 6.131, P.O. Box 85500, 3508 GA Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Air pollution exposure has been linked to detrimental health outcomes. While cross-sectional studies have demonstrated socioeconomic disparities in air pollution exposure, longitudinal evidence on these disparities remains limited. The current study investigates trends in residential air pollution exposure across socioeconomic groups in the Netherlands from 2014 to 2019.

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Sex differences and trends in managing cardiovascular risk factors in primary care: a dynamic cohort study.

BJGP Open

August 2024

Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands.

Background: Treatment targets for cardiovascular risk management make no distinction between women and men.

Aim: To explore sex differences in achieving treatment targets in patients that participated in a nurse-led, integrated CVRM care programme in primary care between 2013 and 2019.

Design & Setting: We conducted a dynamic cohort study in the Eindhoven region, south-east of The Netherlands METHOD: We assessed outcomes of three biological risk factors (systolic blood pressure, low density lipoprotein-cholesterol and estimated glomerular filtration rate) and four lifestyle factors (smoking, physical activity, alcohol intake and body mass index).

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Heavy metals disrupt mitochondrial function and activate the NOD-like receptor pyrin-containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome. We investigated the effect of lead (Pb)/cadmium (Cd) on mitochondrial function and NLRP3 inflammasome activation in human trophoblast under normoxic, hypoxic and pro-inflammatory conditions. JEG-3, BeWo and HTR-8/SVneo cells were exposed to Pb or Cd for 24 h in the absence or presence of hypoxia or pro-inflammatory lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or poly(I:C).

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Background: Globally, the population is rapidly ageing, stemming from a recent decline in mortality, and an increase in life expectancy. About 727 million people globally were aged ≥65 in 2020, and 1 in 6 people will be ≥65 years by 2050. About 7% of Ghana's population was over 60 years in 2010, and projected to be 12% by 2050.

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Introduction: Despite the favourable efficacy of antiretroviral therapy (ART), HIV/AIDS continues to impose significant disease burdens worldwide. This study aims to systematically review published prognostic prediction models for survival outcomes of treatment experienced people living with HIV (TE-PLHIV), to describe their characteristics, compare their performance and assess the risk of bias and real-world clinical utility.

Methods And Analysis: Studies will be identified through a comprehensive search in PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, the Cochrane Library, and OpenGrey databases.

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Purpose: Investigate the associations of ultra-processed foods (UPF) in healthful (hPDI) and unhealthful (uPDI) plant-based diets with all-cause mortality, greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE), and blue water consumption (BWC).

Methods: Analyses were based on 35,030 participants (20-70 years; 74% females) from the EPIC-NL cohort who were followed up from 1993 to 1997 through 2014. Plant-based diet indices (hPDI and uPDI) and UPF consumption were calculated from a validated FFQ, assessed at baseline.

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Article Synopsis
  • A group of experts and patients created a way to assess how useful artificial intelligence (AI) can be in healthcare by involving patients in the project.
  • The team reflected on their experiences and challenges throughout the project to improve how they worked together.
  • Including patients made the research more meaningful, but they also faced some difficulties, like one patient leaving the project, highlighting the need for support in future collaborations.
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Evaluation of risk prediction models to select lung cancer screening participants in Europe: a prospective cohort consortium analysis.

Lancet Digit Health

September 2024

Genomic Epidemiology Branch, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France. Electronic address:

Background: Lung cancer risk prediction models might efficiently identify individuals who should be offered lung cancer screening. However, their performance has not been comprehensively evaluated in Europe. We aimed to externally validate and evaluate the performance of several risk prediction models that predict lung cancer incidence or mortality in prospective European cohorts.

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Aim And Objectives: To provide an in-depth insight into the barriers, facilitators and needs of district nurses and nurse assistants on using patient outcomes in district nursing care.

Background: As healthcare demands grow, particularly in district nursing, there is a significant need to understand how to systematically measure and improve patient outcomes in this setting. Further investigation is needed to identify the barriers and facilitators for effective implementation.

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Diabetes as a risk factor for tuberculosis disease.

Cochrane Database Syst Rev

August 2024

Global Tuberculosis Programme, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is amongst the leading causes of death from an infectious disease, with an estimated 1.3 million deaths from TB in 2022. Approximately 25% of the global population is estimated to be infected with the TB bacterium, giving rise to 10.

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Towards a Learning Health System for Symptom Management in Hospice Care.

Stud Health Technol Inform

August 2024

Department of Research and Development, Netherlands Comprehensive Cancer Organisation, Utrecht, The Netherlands.

The reuse of real-world symptom monitoring data is essential in improving the quality of hospice care. A framework for achieving this is a Learning Health System, in which the development of a well-defined dataset is essential. This paper discusses the challenges in the design of a comprehensive dataset, focusing on variations in two electronic health record systems and divergent care processes.

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What is a cure through gene therapy? An analysis and evaluation of the use of "cure".

Med Health Care Philos

December 2024

Department of Bioethics and Health Humanities, Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Article Synopsis
  • The paper explores the concept of "cure" in gene therapy, particularly for hemophilia, highlighting the ambiguity surrounding its meaning in medical discussions.
  • It identifies three interpretations of "cure": normalization of the body, achieving a normal life, and a change in identity, arguing that context is key for each use.
  • The authors suggest that in gene therapy, it's more effective to move away from the term "cure" and adopt more specific definitions to guide health resource decisions and research funding.
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Background: In 2019, a 5-year pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) program started in the Netherlands, in which up to 8500 men who have sex with men (MSM) can obtain PrEP and 3-monthly consultations with HIV/STI testing.

Setting: We assessed the impact of the PrEP program on transmission of HIV and Neisseria gonorrhea (NG) among MSM in the Netherlands and examined prospective variations of the program after 2024.

Methods: We used an agent-based model to estimate the effect of the PrEP program.

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Article Synopsis
  • Acute kidney injury (AKI) is often underdiagnosed in clinical settings, making timely management crucial for patient safety, which a new e-alert system at the University Medical Center Utrecht aims to improve by comparing current creatinine levels with historical data.
  • By analyzing data from nearly 85,000 emergency department visits, researchers found that linking primary care and tertiary care data allowed for an additional 7,886 evaluations of AKI, with significant benefits observed particularly for women and those aged 60 and older.
  • The study showed that while overall diagnosis times remained similar, cases identified in both datasets were diagnosed 2.8 days sooner, highlighting that integrating different data sources can enhance diagnostic accuracy and speed for AK
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Objective: Nurses' and doctors' health at work is crucial for their overall performance and the quality of care they provide. The Jobs Demands Resources (JD-R) model offers a framework for health at work, encompassing 'job demands', 'job resources', 'personal resources', 'leadership', 'well-being' and 'outcomes'. While various instruments exist to measure health, an overview of instruments specifically designed for assessing nurses and doctors health is currently missing.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to compare traditional and novel body shape indexes (like ABSI and HI) regarding their associations with inflammation markers, particularly C-reactive protein (CRP), using data from the EPIC and UK Biobank cohorts.
  • Participants included nearly 444,000 individuals, with the analysis involving various body shape phenotypes derived from measurements such as height and weight.
  • Results indicated that traditional measures like BMI and waist circumference were positively linked to CRP levels, while some body phenotypes showed varying associations by sex, highlighting the complexity of body shape and inflammation relationships.
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Objectives: To investigate the associations of physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviour in early childhood with asthma and reduced lung function in later childhood within a large collaborative study.

Design: Pooling of longitudinal data from collaborating birth cohorts using meta-analysis of separate cohort-specific estimates and analysis of individual participant data of all cohorts combined.

Setting: Children aged 0-18 years from 26 European birth cohorts.

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Expanded PAH analysis of household air pollution in a rural region of China with high lung cancer incidence.

Environ Pollut

November 2024

Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, the Netherlands; Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands.

The domestic combustion of locally sourced smoky (bituminous) coal in Xuanwei and Fuyuan counties, China, is responsible for some of the highest lung cancer rates in the world. Recent research has pointed to methylated PAHs (mPAHs), particularly 5-methylchrysene (5MC), within coal combustion products as a driving factor. Here we describe measurements of mPAHs in Xuanwei and Fuyuan derived from controlled burnings (i.

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Drawing on our experiences conducting replications we describe the lessons we learned about replication studies and formulate recommendations for researchers, policy makers, and funders about the role of replication in science and how it should be supported and funded. We first identify a variety of benefits of doing replication studies. Next, we argue that it is often necessary to improve aspects of the original study, even if that means deviating from the original protocol.

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