Report of Inter-Society Commission for Heart Disease Resources. I. Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease. Prevention of pulmonary heart disease.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
SEARCH · PubMed Health
Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
We have recently identified a region on the long arm of chromosome 18 that carries a predisposition gene for Paget's disease using linkage analysis. This region was explored because of earlier studies demonstrating the presence of a gene for another bone disorder, familial expansile osteolysis (FEO) within this region. FEO has many similarities to Paget's disease including osteoclast abnormalities and viral-like nuclear inclusions. Therefore, it was proposed that FEO and Paget's disease are disorders resulting from mutations at the same locus. For our linkage study, we utilized a large kindred with a high incidence of Paget's disease. The propositus in this family had polyostotic disease symptoms beginning at age 31. During the process of characterizing this family, four other family members were diagnosed with Paget's disease. One of the proband's siblings was asymptomatic but had high normal serum alkaline phosphatase levels; Paget's disease was identified only after bone scanning (at age 50). This implies that the predisposition gene does not consistently cause severe disease and raises a question concerning the mechanism of predisposition: Does the predisposition gene affect the age of onset and/or the severity of disease? To further explore this question, two individuals from this kindred, under age 30 and carrying the affected haplotype, were evaluated for early onset Paget's disease. No evidence of disease was observed after thorough evaluation. This implies that the age of onset is highly variable for this locus, indicating variable expression of disease in individuals carrying the same mutation.
PURPOSE: In advanced rectal cancer, chemoradiation can induce downstaging until complete disappearance of the tumor or its persistence in minimal form. The complete sterilized and the minimal residual disease often are considered similar. We evaluated the specific incidence of these two conditions and analyzed their impact in terms of local recurrence, distant metastasis, and survival. METHODS: We studied 139 uT3/T4 N0/N+ rectal cancers, treated with preoperative chemoradiation and curative surgery after six to eight weeks. We evaluated ypTNM stage and tumoral regression, according to the five degrees proposed by Dworak, with special attention to 4 and 3 (sterilized and minimal residual disease). RESULTS: Tumor downstaging occurred in 65 patients (46.7 percent), including 25 sterilized lesions (17.9 percent) and 24 minimal residual disease (17.2 percent). In median follow-up of 30 months, none of the patients with sterilized disease developed local or distant recurrence. Among patients with minimal residual disease, none developed local recurrence, whereas two (8.3 percent) developed distant metastasis, and one died from disease. In patients with gross residual disease (Grade 2, 1, 0) the percentage of local recurrence was 8.8 percent, distant recurrence 26.6 percent, and 13.3 percent died from disease. The difference between three groups is statistically significant as regards local and distant recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: After preoperative therapy, the sterilized disease shows an excellent prognosis. The minimal residual disease has an important numeric incidence. Its outcome is different, with a not-negligible risk of distant recurrence. The minimal residual disease has a much better prognosis in comparison with the gross residual disease.
To test the hypothesis that Paget's disease of bone is associated with a greater incidence of calcific aortic valve disease, a computer-generated list was obtained of all autopsy subjects from the Johns Hopkins Hospital in whom Paget's disease was diagnosed (n = 92). The severity of Paget's disease and cardiac valvular lesions was graded on a scale of 0 to 3, with 3 as the most severe. Two control cases were obtained for each case of Paget's disease. Each was the case either immediately before or after the Paget's case, and was matched for age, race, sex, and extent of autopsy. The incidences of moderate (10.9 percent) and severe (5.4 percent) calcific aortic valve disease were both fourfold greater than in the control group (chi-square analysis, p less than 0.01 and p less than 0.05, respectively). Additionally, the frequency of advancing grades of calcific aortic valve disease was greater in more advanced stages of Paget's disease. In fact, there was a dose-response effect of Paget's disease upon calcific aortic valve disease (trend analysis for proportion, p less than 0.01). These data therefore support the hypothesis that Paget's disease is associated with calcific aortic valve disease in a dose-response manner.
This paper presents epidemiological data on the prevalence of 26 common (i.e., having a lifetime prevalence of more than 1 per 10(4) individuals in the population) multifactorial diseases in Hungary and estimates of detriment associated with them. The detriment is expressed using 3 indicators, namely years of lost life (LL), potentially impaired life (PIL) and actually impaired life (AIL). The total prevalence of these diseases in Hungary has been estimated to be about 6500 per 10(4) individuals in the population. This estimate is in agreement with published data for other parts of the world. On the basis of clinical severity, these diseases have been split into 3 groups, namely (1) very severe (schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, acute myocardial infarction and related conditions, and systemic lupus erythematosus); (2) moderately severe and/or episodal or seasonal (15 entities including Graves' disease, diabetes mellitus, gout, affective psychoses, essential hypertension, peptic ulcers, asthma, etc.); and (3) less severe than those in the first 2 groups (varicose veins, allergic rhinitis, atopic dermatitis, Scheuermann disease and adolescent idiopathic scoliosis). The essential clinical and genetic aspects of these diseases are briefly discussed. With the exception of epilepsy, none of the diseases included in our list causes mortality between ages 0 and 19. However, they are among the leading causes of death between ages 20 and 69 and thereafter. A sizeable proportion of those with essential hypertension, diabetes mellitus, rheumatoid arthritis, etc. survive to 70 years and beyond, as do those with gout, glaucoma, allergic rhinitis, psoriasis, etc. Overall, about 16% of all deaths that occur in Hungary every year (all age groups) can be attributed to these diseases. The mean number of years of PIL covers a wide range (about 20-40, 12-70 and 40-60 for groups 1, 2 and 3, respectively), the overall mean being about 24 years. However, the nature and degree of impairment and the impact on the life quality of those afflicted differ for the different diseases. Likewise, the mean number of years of AIL (for which the interval between the mean age at premature retirement and mean age at death was used as a rough index) also spans a wide range from 16 to 45, and the overall mean is about 20 years. At the population level, the diseases considered in this paper cause about 2700 years of LL, 96,000 years of PIL and about 5800 years of AIL per 10(4) individuals in the population. Relative to Mendelian diseases as a whole, these multifactorial diseases are associated with much greater detriment (LL: 1.4 X; PIL: 30 X and AIL: 3.9 X).
BACKGROUND: Infiltration of the liver by leukocytes is a histological feature of alcoholic liver disease. Intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) mediates the migration of lymphocytes from the circulation to target sites of inflammation. It has been demonstrated in the liver of alcoholic liver disease subjects and as a circulating soluble form (sICAM-1). The origin of sICAM-1 and its relationship to disease severity is unknown, although it has been postulated that it may arise from activated T lymphocytes and is an inflammatory marker. AIMS: The aim of the study was to determine the relationship of sICAM-1 to clinical and histological severity of alcoholic liver disease and to serum T-cell (soluble interleukin-2 receptor (sIL-2R), beta 2-microglobulin) and monocyte (neopterin) immune activation markers. METHODS: Serum from 48 outpatients with biopsy proven alcoholic liver disease (steatosis = 9, cirrhosis = 28, hepatitis +/- cirrhosis = 11), 31 with primary biliary cirrhosis and 27 normals was assayed for sICAM-1, sIL-2R, beta 2-microglobulin, and neopterin. RESULTS: sICAM-1 was significantly elevated, p = 0.0001, in alcoholic liver disease and primary biliary cirrhosis patients compared to normals. Circulating sIL-2R (p = 0.0001) and beta 2-microgloblin (p = 0.0034) were significantly elevated in alcoholic liver disease compared to controls. There was a highly significant correlation between levels of sICAM-1 and histological grade of disease, Rs = 0.80 (p = 0.0001), but no significant correlation with clinical correlates of disease severity or circulating immune activation markers. CONCLUSIONS: sICAM-1 is elevated in alcoholic liver disease, is a marker of histological severity of disease and does not appear to originate from activated T lymphocytes. Measurements of sICAM-1 may be useful in assessing histological severity of alcoholic liver disease.
Crohn's disease (CD) is a multifactorial disease with genetic heterogeneity. TNF-alpha plays a key role in the development of the mucosal lesions. The aim of our work was to study a single base pair polymorphism located in the promoter region of TNF gene, in a large population of CD patients with well defined phenotypes. One hundred and ninety-three patients with CD and 98 ethnically matched controls were studied. The -308 single base pair polymorphism of TNF gene was studied using an allele-specific polymerase chain reaction. Genotype and allelic frequencies were compared between patients and controls and between subgroups of patients defined by sex, age at diagnosis, familial history, location of disease, type of disease, extra-intestinal manifestations, and response to steroid treatment. In 29 patients a measure of TNF-alpha production by colonic biopsies was performed. The frequency of the allele TNF2 as well as the proportion of carriers of the allele TNF2 were slightly but not significantly lower in CD than in controls (11.9% versus 14.8% and 21.5% versus 27.6%, respectively). A more prominent difference in frequencies of allele TNF2 and in proportions of TNF2 carriers was found when comparing subgroups of patients. The frequency of allele TNF2 was significantly higher in steroid-dependent than in non-steroid-dependent disease (28.1% versus 10.3%; Delta = 17.8%, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 6.3-29.5%, P = 0.0027) and tended to be higher in colonic than in small bowel disease and in fistulizing than in stricturing disease. Furthermore, TNF2 carriers tended to be more frequent in patients with steroid-dependent than non-steroid-dependent disease (43.8% versus 19.3%; Delta = 24.5%, 95% CI = 3.6-45.4%, P = 0.022), in patients with fistulizing than stricturing disease (26.5% versus 9.6%; Delta = 16.9%, 95% CI = 1. 1-32.6%, P = 0.036), and in patients with colonic than small bowel disease (26.5% versus 11.1%; Delta = 15.4%, 95% CI = -0.8-31.6%, P = 0.063). Finally, patients carrying at least one copy of allele 2 were found to produce slightly more TNF-alpha at the colonic level. The -308 TNF gene polymorphism may have a slight influence on the behaviour of CD. The carriage of allele 2 may favour steroid-dependent disease and to a lesser extent fistulizing and colonic disease, possibly secondary to a more intense TNF-alpha-driven inflammatory reaction at the mucosal level.
An 8-person subcommittee of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Mycoses Study Group evaluated available data on the treatment of cryptococcal disease. Opinion regarding optimal treatment was based on personal experience and information in the literature. The relative strength of each recommendation was graded according to the type and degree of evidence available to support the recommendation, in keeping with previously published guidelines by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). The panel conferred in person (on 2 occasions), by conference call, and through written reviews of each draft of the manuscript. The choice of treatment for disease caused by Cryptococcus neoformans depends on both the anatomic sites of involvement and the host's immune status. For immunocompetent hosts with isolated pulmonary disease, careful observation may be warranted; in the case of symptomatic infection, indicated treatment is fluconazole, 200-400 mg/day for 36 months. For those individuals with non-CNS-isolated cryptococcemia, a positive serum cryptococcal antigen titer >1:8, or urinary tract or cutaneous disease, recommended treatment is oral azole therapy (fluconazole) for 36 months. In each case, careful assessment of the CNS is required to rule out occult meningitis. For those individuals who are unable to tolerate fluconazole, itraconazole (200-400 mg/day for 6-12 months) is an acceptable alternative. For patients with more severe disease, treatment with amphotericin B (0.5-1 mg/kg/d) may be necessary for 6-10 weeks. For otherwise healthy hosts with CNS disease, standard therapy consists of amphotericin B, 0.7-1 mg/kg/d, plus flucytosine, 100 mg/kg/d, for 6-10 weeks. An alternative to this regimen is amphotericin B (0.7-1 mg/kg/d) plus 5-flucytosine (100 mg/kg/d) for 2 weeks, followed by fluconazole (400 mg/day) for a minimum of 10 weeks. Fluconazole "consolidation" therapy may be continued for as along as 6-12 months, depending on the clinical status of the patient. HIV-negative, immunocompromised hosts should be treated in the same fashion as those with CNS disease, regardless of the site of involvement. Cryptococcal disease that develops in patients with HIV infection always warrants therapy. For those patients with HIV who present with isolated pulmonary or urinary tract disease, fluconazole at 200-400 mg/d is indicated. Although the ultimate impact from highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) is currently unclear, it is recommended that all HIV-infected individuals continue maintenance therapy for life. Among those individuals who are unable to tolerate fluconazole, itraconazole (200-400 mg/d) is an acceptable alternative. For patients with more severe disease, a combination of fluconazole (400 mg/d) plus flucytosine (100-150 mg/d) may be used for 10 weeks, followed by fluconazole maintenance therapy. Among patients with HIV infection and cryptococcal meningitis, induction therapy with amphotericin B (0.7-1 mg/kg/d) plus flucytosine (100 mg/kg/d for 2 weeks) followed by fluconazole (400 mg/d) for a minimum of 10 weeks is the treatment of choice. After 10 weeks of therapy, the fluconazole dosage may be reduced to 200 mg/d, depending on the patient's clinical status. Fluconazole should be continued for life. An alternative regimen for AIDS-associated cryptococcal meningitis is amphotericin B (0.7-1 mg/kg/d) plus 5-flucytosine (100 mg/kg/d) for 6-10 weeks, followed by fluconazole maintenance therapy. Induction therapy beginning with an azole alone is generally discouraged. Lipid formulations of amphotericin B can be substituted for amphotericin B for patients whose renal function is impaired. Fluconazole (400-800 mg/d) plus flucytosine (100-150 mg/kg/d) for 6 weeks is an alternative to the use of amphotericin B, although toxicity with this regimen is high. In all cases of cryptococcal meningitis, careful attention to the management of intracranial pressure is imperative to assure optimal c
Observed and described between 1884 and 1900, "fourth disease" (Dukes disease) followed measles, scarlet fever, and rubella as the fourth clinically characterized childhood exanthem. Like rubella ("third disease") and erythema infectiosum ("fifth disease"), accepted by the medical community at about the same time, the existence of fourth disease was initially controversial. Over the following decades descriptions of hundreds of cases, outbreaks, and laboratory studies were published in the indexed medical literature. Unlike rubella and fifth disease, however, fourth disease was not subsequently proven to exist by either epidemiologic criteria or isolation of an etiologic agent. By the 1930s, it was infrequently recognized and by the 1960s had been dropped from textbooks. In this study, the authors use epidemiologic methods to reevaluate published data on English schoolchildren from 1892 to 1900 upon which the original fourth disease claim of Dukes was based. The authors conclude that fourth disease never existed. Reinterpretation of the original data suggests that cases can be completely explained as misdiagnosed rubella and scarlet fever. Misidentification of fourth disease is attributed to failures in the critical abilities of the medical and scientific communities at the time. The implications of erroneously identifying a nonexistent disease suggest that modern scientific approaches to disease identification are sound.